One of the very good thing about rice farming is that it take less that four months between planting and harvesting. Therefore, whatever amount you invested now, you're sure of your return within the next four months, guaranteeing the possibility for quick loan repayments if you take loan to invest in rice farming.
As part of the government's efforts to ensure adequate food supply to her citizens, Rice farming is also one of those farm investments government is willing to support by borrowing money and logistics to any farmer who is willing to embark on it, which is a very great advantage for a would be Rice Farmer.
Rice farming is straight forward and requires not much expertise, anyone can cultivate and harvest rice, irrespective of your experience and background in rice business. Rice is a very high yield crop, one Acre of rice farm is capable of producing over 100 bags of rice. Below are some of the things you need to make it happen -
(a) A very good swampy, less acidic land
(b) High yield verity of rice specie
(c) The right fertilizer and proper application
(d) Good weed control at the proper time
(e) And early planting...
Put these in place and you're in for a hit in rice business!
Rice is a very fast selling farm produce, you don't have to wait for months or years before you could sell. It sells so fast that everything could be disposed right at the farm except you want to process or stock it. This is the reason why rice farming is a 'Get Rich Quick Farming'.
Rice is by far the most consumed food staple in China, Indonesia, Tailand, and Nigeria - a West African country of over 150million people. It can be prepared in various forms like: The popular White Rice and stew, Jollof rice, Pounded rice, etc. You simply can not doubt the usefulness of rice in most countries around the world. Now, if you are willing to go into it, here are the step by step how to cultivate and harvest your rice produce. Feel free to ask question or add anything you think is missing by making a comment below.
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| Texas economist and farmer Thomas Wynn pulls a rice plant from the ground |
1. Select the Healthy Rice Seeds - The healthier the seeds, the higher it will produce. Look for the improved verity and do the seed selection, don't just plant the seeds indiscriminately, discriminate among the seeds and go for the best. Good rice production practice requires that you manually select the seeds. Lack of seed selection is one major reason why local farmers produces very little.
If you select the best of rice seeds, your harvest would be well worth the time and energy invested in selecting the seeds. But if you neglect this! Well, good luck for you gamble.
2. Raise Rice Seedlings in a Nursery - Prepare the seedbed and plant the seed there first to grow in a nursery. Solarize The Soil if you can - Soil solarization simply is the method of heating the soil by covering it with transparent polythene sheet in other to control soil borne diseases. Because, many soil borne pathogens and nematodes attack transplanted rice leaving it with low yield.
It has also been shown that Rice yield always increases by about 36% by using solarization technique to raise the seedlings. Again, transplanted rice matures to harvest faster than non transplanted. After two to three weeks, your seedling will be ready for transplant.
3. Look for a Swampy Land - Swampy land saves you the capital and stress of irrigation. Although rice can be planted in both upland dry condition and lowland swamp and irrigated, but it has been shown that rice produces more on lowland swamp or irrigated soil. So, go for swampy land. Get the land prepared by clearing and using Tractors to properly till the soil surface in readiness for the actual transplanting of your rice seedling.
4. Manage the Weeds and Soil Nutrients - After two months of transplanting, the rice farm would be due for weed control, then it will be time to moderately apply herbicide to kill off the weeds. Some people apply Herbicide twice before harvest. Fertilizer is applied in about a month after the transplant. Use the right type of fertilizer (Organic fertilizer) and apply by spraying within the plant field with the right quantity.
5. Harvest Your Crop - Within the 4months of planting, your crop will be ready for harvest. When matured, the color of the rice will change from green to light brown. Then, you know your crop is ready for harvest.
You'd need to move in and harvest you crop very fast to avoid it being eaten up by pests as so many animals feed on the rice seed. Please you'll need to learn a lot about the pest control.
Whatever effort and money you put into the farm, be assured that within five months you'll be smiling to the bank.
Thanks a lot mr darlington, you have no idea how much you have just motivated me with your post on rice farming. I have been getting cold feet since I decided to do it and everyone telling me I could not do it because am a girl made it worse. I wish you could email me to elaborate more on farming knowledge and estimated cost. keep up the good work, you have no idea how much you have impacted me with this post. please reply and you can email me on ileender@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteNice to hear that you are encouraged by this post. There are MANY articles on this website on different farming, most you guys couldn't see much because you are browsing with phone. I think you need to browse with laptop to be able to see stuffs more.
Deletei am willing to invest in rice farming. please contact me. tarun
ReplyDeleteHow do I contact you?
ReplyDelete