Banana farming is the most neglected farming in Nigeria, yet, holds more promises and profit potential than most other farming. Knowledge is power and useful, but when it is kept away from the others it becomes useless! In this post we want to take a look at banana and plantain farming in Nigeria and how to get started.
You can be making N1million monthly from banana and plantain farming if you take it to the commercial standard. If many people Nigeria today could sit down and review their living standards, they will see that most of their complaints for poverty and their inability to take care of their situation were actually their own making.
Why would the city be clustered by hungry people who are doing nothing when the surrounding states are made up of vast expanses of productive farmlands? Even when you can make millions from farming without stress? Take up banana farming today and see how it goes.
Hear what a man said with regards to this: “I was shocked that I was largely to blame for the poverty I was wallowing in. Since then I resolved to do something to turn round the situation,”
Many people today are still wallowing in abject poverty notwithstanding that they can still conveniently do some things about the sad situation and rescue themselves from poverty, take care of the situation by embarking on personal business or the other instead of waiting endlessly for a white collar job that may be here today and gone tomorrow.
Do you know that plantain and banana mean much more than being carried with tray-pan and running after vehicles on the go-slow as so many are seen doing in many parts of Nigeria? If we realize that the demands of these fruits that has become staple food in Nigeria and other parts of the world is increasing by the day, we would then know that thinking towards that area would make some serious business senses.
Take plantain for example, Nigerian are not playing with it as they prefer eating it in various ways both ripped and unripe and very good for those working on their sugar levels.
Again other foods like beans, rice, and groundnuts all make very good combination when taken with banana or plantain. Think again about the delicious chips that we like to eat, all these and many more are the end products of plantain.
So without going into much details, looking at various usages of these fruits is enough to tell someone with entrepreneurs mindset that this is simply, money in bunches!
You may be new into farming or has been farming but hasn’t cared enough to consider banana and plantain as all that important.
But with the above brief analysis, we are encouraging you to give it a trial, with the assurance that if done properly, you will not regret it.
For those interested in plantain/banana cultivation, we will be glad to provide you with just enough knowledge needed to go into its farming and take part of the profits that those already in the business are enjoying.
Guidelines For Starting Banana And Plantain Farming
1. Look for the right climate – Plantain and banana have one thing in common and that is, they thrives very well in an average climate that is neither too hot nor very cold. They do well in naturally fertilized soil or thick compost manure. Having them in groups is another tricks to getting good harvest because they protect each other from harsh rays of the sun or alternatively, if there are other trees to provide some needed shades that could help to maintain the humidity of the environment, that would suffice.
See Also: How To Secure Agric Loan In Nigeria
2. Get Healthy suckers – Bananas and Plantain are not grown like other plants but its grown through suckers and as such, choosing healthy suckers goes a long way to producing healthy harvests. Always use suckers from matured and dying plantain or banana plants.
3. Transplant – While transplanting, make sure that the corm or the roots at the bottom is trimmed properly to facilitate good growths. Give five meters gap between plants and keep the plants moist at the early days but do not over wet the soil because the leaves are not yet out for much water evaporation.
Also apply any method to have it protected from some strong winds and throwing the dead plantain leaves back into the plant is good to sustain the needed manure for good growth.
See Also: How To Start Cucumber Farming In Nigeria
Do not leave much suckers to be attached with a plant as two are usually enough. Cultivating plantain or banana doesn’t usually cost much except the initial securing of the land and planting the suckers after which the plants keeps growing unassisted.
Once it starts to produce, another form of work involves is to make sure that strong winds doesn’t get freely to it as that could bound to be falling the trees.
Starting a plantain or banana farm is not in any way expensive if you have a sizable land. The only thing that you would spend little money on are for the clearing of the farmland and buying of the suckers for planting.
Banana And Plantain Plantation
For an acre of land, you may spend less than N300,000 to have every thing done and includes some clearing as the needs may be until the first harvest.
Once a plantain plantation picks up, the owner stands the chance of continuous harvest for the next 20-years or more depending on how the farm is maintained.
The best breeds to go for, is the “hybrid/agbagba” this is a good specie because apart from producing on time when properly taken care of, it’s usually very big and long; making people to compare it with elephant trunks.
Maintaining the plants doesn’t entail more than heaping soil around the suckers, removing of the unwanted suckers, fertilization, mulching and weeding once in a while.
Starting a banana or plantain farming is very lucrative because any amount it gives you on the first harvest, be sure that with less hard work than all that you started with, you would be making an increment year by year till the next 20 years or there about.
Plantain farming is a sure business if only the farmer see it as such. When you go to mile 12 market, Ketu market or any other markets where the fruits are being sold, you would be made to understand better that those making it possible are not in any where joking because it is a viable business.
Though the business is lucrative but the advice from long time farmers is, ‘The size of your farm should depend on the size of your dream, creativity and innovation. Avoid taking on too much than you can be able to handle financially and in terms of personnel’. Besides embracing modern farming practices, seeds and technology, be passionate about what you do and give farming additional time’.
Those are the words from the horse’s mouth, those who had changed their life stories with various forms of farming, banana and plantain inclusive.
The man we started his testimonies with in this post still has much to share with us as he continues….
“I had always dreamed of becoming a big farmer. Naturally, I was inclined to the agriculture sector, in which I believed I had some basic skills to do a decent job,”
That didn’t do much for him until he backed up his words with determination and stood up to carry out his long held heart desires of going into farming and that changed his life for the better as he have this to say “I could now see my dream taking shape…I could see myself as the biggest farmer in our locality. I was determined to make commercial farming a pedestal for a better future for my family,”
You may be surprised to know what this successful farmer is giving these praises to. He started with Pineapple farming and cattle rearing and later diversified into banana cultivation. His testimonies continues…
“I was among the poorest people in the sector, but he now I owns the most beautiful house in the entire village. My children are studying in one of the best schools in town.” This farmer concludes with this counsel for farmers: “Always plan your projects well and be focused. He adds that only those that dare to dream big and take that extra-mile achieve goals. The reality of this saying can only be proved by embarking on the lucrative plantain farming.
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