Important:

1. What kind of seedlings do you plant with?

2. What kind of spacing do you apply?
3. What kind of nutrients do you feed your soil with?
4. Spacing and plant population is critical in any crop production.
5. Always make sure that your farm is not too far from the market
6. Never be an absentee farmer. Make sure your farm is close to where you live and if its not,
rent a house in that village. If you must be an absentee farmer, then tell the person that will
takia of the farm that you are willing to give him 5-10% of the net profit if the maize does
well (I might do this nxt year cos my leased farm land is in the east
7. Don't manage money. Make sure you have enough money for weeding (2ice), fertilizer
(2ice),labour. Etc
8. If you want to maximize your profit (maize), try planting early maize or late maize. One of
the reasons I made a loss was because of my timing.
9. There is more money in selling fresh than threshing and bagging it.
10. Know the right herbicides/pesticides to use and how to use them.
11. Pray to God to turn away Fulani herdsmen from your farm angry angry angry. The week I
was supposed to harvest, a Fulani herdsman was butchered to death by one of the locals
because the Fulani man and his cows scattered the local's rice farm. I postponed my harvest
by 1 week to allow things to cool down before the Fulani men think that i'm from the village
and attack me when im harvesting.
12. This is why timing of planting in farming is very important.I guess you planted it during the
off-planting time
To achieve better profit next year,planting should be done immediately the first rain in
February and Maybe in Early or Mid-March
The best way to sell your corn when faced with such scenario is to allow it to dry and
shell,then supply to poultry farms,palp producers e.t.c
13. high yield seeds. Preferablely one that gives yields above 3tonnes per hectare
14. Know the appropriate seed quantity per space. I, e for open pollinated seeds 20kg per
hectare and for hybrids 15kg per hectare.
15. spacing. your loss will be compounded if you dont space properly. I. e 25 cm in between
stands and 75 cm between rows. For efficiency avoid manual planting. Hire a planter.
16. Fertilizer. Fertilizer can be applied in 3 split applications as follows at planting, four weeks
after planting and a third at six weeks to eight weeks. Use Npk and and urea. For efficiency
budget a minimum of 4 bags per hectare. 3npk 1 urea.
17. ensure your farm is free of weeds from the 3-10 leaves stage. Generally make sure ur farm is
free of weeds.
18. avoid land prep manually. Use a tractor as follows. Ploughing and harrowing if youre using a
planter.
19. Use a powerful pre and post emergence herbicide two days after planting then follow up
with weeding as necessary.
20. Harvest only when maize has dried fully, for better accuracy shell at 150days. This is to avoid
losses due to Mycotoxin growth during storage.
21. The herbicide has to be applied two days after planting else it will kill the seeds.Ye s you will
have to use man power for weeding right before the 2nd application. Because using
herbicide at this point will be harmful on the maize plant. As for the harmful effect on the
 soil research is still ongoing. But by and large youre a business man and u need to reduce
expenses. Weeding in itself is expensive doing it more than once will be expensive.
22. Selling dried shelled maize is by far more profitable than selling fresh. In Niger state where I
farm by November a bag was sold for 11,000. I will be happy to entertain more questions
and look forward to your success this farming season.

Maize Fam Research Findings

Plant corn into the soil 2cm-3cm with a spacing of 25cm x 75cm; 25cm between crops
and 75cm between rows. The spacing is rightly done in other for the ‘maize plant’ to form
canopy.

Plant corn into the soil 2cm-3cm with a spacing of 25cm x 75cm; 25cm between crops
and 75cm between rows. The spacing is rightly done in other for the ‘maize plant’ to form
canopy.

You can soak the corn in water a day before planting. This will help the maize to
germinate faster. It is mostly carried out with maize that are very hard.

In other to break their dormancy you soak them in water. You need 20kg of maize in a
hectare.

Maize seed germinates 3-5 days. A hectare will yield between 3-5 tonnes. Although with
improve species  like  the hybrid maize type, one can harvest up to 8 tonnes all things
being equal.

An hectare will produce 10,000 stand with the spacing provided above while acre will
produce 4040 stands (E. Johnson).

Maize cultivation can be successfully done in various soils like clay loam, sand loamy,
and black cotton soil. If you want a better yield of maize crop then choose a soil which
has good organic matter content with high water holding capacity.

Apart from the cost of land, over 90% of the costs for cultivating a hectare are labour costs. i.e.
Clearing, land preparation and planting. Labour costs largely depend on the location. As you might
expect, labour in rural areas is cheaper. You will only need about N2,500 for purchase of high yield
seeds for 1 hectare of land. If you need fertilizers or pesticides, that may cost about N5,000. You will
need to contact the farmers in your area to tell you how much they will charge you for labour.

 MAIZE IS GOOD WHEN SOLD FRESH TO FRESH MARKET AS YOU DONT NEED TO EXPEND
ADDITIONAL COSTS...CONSIDER FEEDMILLS WHO CAN ONLY BUY AT THE RANGE OF 100K
PER ANNUM...
 IF SOLD FRESH AND YOU HAVE 2 PLANTS PER HILL WITH AVERAGE OF TWO EARS... YOU WILL
SELL 400-600 FRESH MAIZES FOR N2K TO N4K IN THE FRESH MARKET... SO IF YOU HAVE
50,000 HILLS PER HECTARE... YOU SHOULD GARNER 200,000 FRESH MAIZES PER HECTARE
AND ACHIEVE 400 IGBA'S OF MAIZE @ N2K PER IGBA, YOU SHOULD GET N800,000... THATS
EVEN A MID/WORST CASE SCENARIO... IF PROPER SKILLS IS UTILIZED, YOU GET N1.6MILLION
PER HECTARE....

STAGE 1:
Land lease " #5,000
1st Ploughing #8,000
2nd Ploughing #8,000
Hybrid Seed/hectare #5,000

STAGE 2:
Planting #3,000
1st Weeding #9,000
Fertiliser #5,500
Application #4,000

STAGE 3:
2nd Weeding #9,000
GNLD #8,000
Application #4,000
Insecticide #6,000
Application #4,000

TOTAL #78,500
The target yield is 3tons/ha.
1ton sells for #60,000,Now multiply 60,000*3 = #180,000.Your profit =180,000-78,500
=101,500 within 2months.
We can help you get land for rent @ #5,000/hectare in Ogun State.

 Apart from not including the cost of harvesting, he also ommited the cost of storage, de-
hauling of the ears and bagging of the corn. And we have not even considered transporting
the corn from the farm to the market or where it is to be sold.
  Futhermore, I feel the N6000 provision you made for insecticide is grossly inadequate for a 1
hectre(15 plots) plantation. Are you fumigating only once and how are you delivering the
insecticide; by yourself or hiring a profesdional. And you did not make provision whatsoever
for birds. birds pose a more serious problem to corn plantation. My friends that has a small
corn farm always complain that birds reduce his harvest by as much as half' especially if the
corn is not harvested on time.

 1 hectare of land should produce 50,000 hills of corn which would equate to 200,000
cubs. An Igba(not sure what that means) would contain 400-600 cubs and could be
sold for between 2000-4000 Naira. Lets use 500 cubs and 3000 Naira as average for
an Igba.

So,
500 cubs = 1 Igbas = 3000 Naira.
200,000 cubs = 400 bags = 1.2 million Naira per hectare.
So your 7 hectare would yeild 8.4 million Naira.
Now that's good money. Or so it seems.

 AS OF TODAY, I HECTARE = 10,000SQM WORLD OVER, WHILE 1 ACRE = 4040SQM...

 NOW LETS IMAGINE WE HAVE 100M X 100M DIMENSION AS 1 HECTARE... AND YOU PLANT
AT 0.4M(WITHIN.ROW SPACING) AND 0.8M (BETWEEN ROW SPACING)
 YOU WILL HAVE 31,125 HILLS BY THAT SPACING, IF YOU NOW HAVE 2STANDS PER HILL, IT
WILL BE 62,250 MAIZE PLANTS.... SO IF YOU HAVE 2 EARS PER PLANT, YOU WILL HAVE
124,500 STANDS... NOW THERE ARE TECHNIQUES TO MAKE 1 PLANT CARRY 3 EARS WHICH
WILL NOT BE STATED HERE... FOR THOSE DARING SOUL, YOU CAN TRY 3 SEEDS PER HILL...
 @MEGAINVEST... NOW FOR THE DARING SOULS WHO MIGHT TRY 3 STANDS PER HILL... YOU
WILL HAVE 93,750 PLANTS/HECTARE... LETS ASSUMED THAT AFTER ALL AND DONE, YOU
HAVE 80,000 PLANTS/HECTARE.. YOU CAN GET 160,000EARS PER HECTARE..

I HOPE YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THE POINTS MORE CLEAERE

Chief, 1 acre is 0.405 hectares! That is fact!! What concerns one's mathematical knowledge
with this? If you have contrary information that is not available to anyone else, kindly share.

According to your own words, if land measurement is never accurate, does it mean that if I
wanted to buy 10 hectares of land and the final measurement comes to about 7 hectares,
then the land is 10 hectares? No!! The size of land is exactly what is measured, not what is
desired. A 1 hectare land is 1 hectare irrespective of whether I desired it to be 3.5 hectares.
The only thing that varies is what we in Nigeria call plots. A standard plot of land in Lagos
and most of the South-West states is 120 ft X 60 ft, while in most Eastern and South-South
states, it is 100 ft X 50 ft.

Crop farming is all about real estate! Please don't confuse this farming with gardening. If you
don't know simple conversion if you see it, how do you hope to be a good farmer then?
Someone said multiply the number of acres by 0.4 to get it in hectares, you said he's wrong
because 1 hectare is 10,000 sqm while 1 acre is 4040 sqm. For goodness sake, what is the
difference? Why tell him he's wrong? Pls note that an acre is actually 4046.9 sqm, not 4040
sqm. You can check this FACT with your phone. It does not matter which phone as even the
lowest Nokia phone has a converter.

Now to some other claims you've made like an hectare containing up to 160,000 ears of
corn...I did not want to respond to this initially, but since you now think you are an expert at
this, I'll respond now. Your figures are wrong!!! How can you say that? That is very
misleading. I was like "does this guy even own a farm?" then I went back and read your
earlier posts and saw that you don't even own a farm (there is a difference between owning
land that can be used for farming and owning a farm, you know) yet you claim to know it all.

At 160,000 ears sold at even N10 each is N1,600,000 very few months. Why don't we leave
this very optimistic and sci-fi attitude and be realistic even for once? That is how someone
will take this information and go and establish a farm only for him to start wondering what is
happening to his farm. I am a farmer and I know what I am saying. I can post pics of my farm
here for you to see.

I admire Megainvest because he is practicing what he is talking about. There is also one
other thread here on this forum about Palm Plantation that you get to see practicing farmers
discussing, not some guy that has internet access and so much idle time. In fact people like
you are many on this forum; some will tell you there is so much money in catfish production,
while others will tell you about the millions (and maybe billions) you can make in poultry
(meat and egg production) and then some poor guy who's been looking for a business will
jump into it thinking they are that profitable. Now don't get me wrong, there is money in
these ventures but not as most posters present them.

It is not easy out there! Pls leave wishful thinking aside and be realistic. Why don't you even
try the 1 hectare first and see if you get 160,000 ears.

Please don't come here claiming you know when you are actually not practicing. Let practical
farmers share their experiences. We have been in this farming business for years.

And another advice: try to read other people's comments and make sure you understand
them before replying so you don't appear confused.

@Cranky
You might be a practicing farmer, but do you consider that you might not be practicing
properly. While experience counts for so much, it also has a way of hindering progress
especially when we choose to close our minds to potential for improvement. Its common
knowledge that farming practices in Nigeria are very outdated and expectedly would result
in poor yields. Do you consider that you practice might be outdated?
What kind of seedlings do you plant with? What kind of spacing do you apply? What kind of
nutriets do you feed your soil with?

Now I ask these questions because from all I have seen, Olushowunm hasn't said anything
different from what is the standard internationally.
Most farmers plant between 30,000 to 50,000 plants of corn per acre. Based on your
conversion at approx 2.5 acres= 1 Hectare, that should give you between (30,000- 50,000) x
2.5= 75,000-125,000 plants per hectare. Now if each plants averages 1-2 ears that leaves us
with an average 150,000 and 250,000 ears per hectare. So how is that different from what
Olushown has postulated. The links and googlecut outs belwoe show what average per acre
planting is.

Africa has been punching below its belt for ages and producing yields that are about 25% of
world averages. Do you consider that your farming practice might just restricted to African
standards which implies that there is huge room for improvement?

@PapaBrowne,

150,000 to 250,000 matured and sizeable ears per hectare? You'll be very lucky if you get
50,000 good enough ears. The rest will be something you'll probably discard or what birds
would have eaten.

Pls don't use that to make financial projections, I beg you.

Like I said before, everything looks easy and rosy on paper/internet. It is only when one starts
practicing that he'll know for sure.

I am not against having 250,000 ears per hectare, but I surely do not subscribe to people
sharing just a part of the story. Why would someone tell me I can get 160,000 ears per
hectare when he can't go further (or does not even know) to tell me what percentage of that
will actually have economic value at harvest? You want to run your economics with that
value? You'll be disappointed at the end o! That is how some innocent guy will just run his
economics based on these values and then cry "witch" later when he doesn't get the
predicted outcome.

Wow it's hot in here! Good thing I finally have some Updates from my practical experience.
My total yield was about 13.5 tons giving about 1.9 tons per hectare. This is way below the
mark of 3 tons per hectare I expected.

There are a few reasons I identified for this. Some of the corn was eaten by pests, some were
stolen and few plants did not produce healthy cobs.
As for the conversions and standard yields, I finally have a grip of it. The following are Given
facts:
1. one acre is 0.404 hectares.
2. 1 hectare will contain 2.47 times the maize in one acre if planted uniformly.
3. Maize yield can range from as low as less than 1 ton per hectare in Africa to over 20 tons
per hectare in some parts of USA. On the average, Chile / USA produce at about 11 tons/ha,
with Nigeria at 2tons/ha.
4. In terms of ears of corn per hectare, a representative figure is difficult to mention but a
yield of 75,000 ears per hectare can be considered as excellent production in the leading
countries.

@Megainvest, well its all good, but take note that the hybrid maize that was given by GES is
not doing very well across all fields, but take note of planting materials in your next farming
project.
Also, i will advise you first used manure on the field before ploughing so it will be properly
mixed with the soil. Then, since you have farmed on the same field before, take note of those
portion that the maize was stunted and did not grow well, so you can increase fertility by
adding more manure.

About Cassava and Maize: I'll say these:

Don't do cassava now. There is going to be a terrible glut next year as so many people have
planted Cassava this year. I think the quantum of Cassava planted this year is probably 4
times last year's quantity. So you can imagine what will happen when there is surplus
availability with fewer buyers. A ridiculous price crash.
Then next year, everyone will run away from cassava and there will be scarcity the following
year and the price goes up again and everybody rushes in again. Its very cyclic in nature.
Next ear is a better time to plant Cassava.

As for corn, still a pretty good crop as there will always be market. Only thing I don't like is
the yield projection vs the sale price. 1 tonne is 120,000 Naira. Average yield down south=3
tonnes/hectare. So you are looking at revenues of N360,000 average per hectare. Not cool to
me.

Except of course you want to follow the value innovation angle like I stated on the first page
of this thread.

A crop to consider;
A Foreign variety of Sweet Potatoes

Average Cost of planting per hectare(Mechanized): N450,000

Average yield expectation: 25 tonnes.
Time to harvest: 3 Months
Cost per tonne: N55,000
Expected Revenue per hectare: N1,350,000