Carrots grow in different kinds of soils and weather. The only exception is stony or clay soils, or areas that are too warm. Notably, carrots do well in areas where temperatures are between 15 and 18 degrees centigrade. Carrots do extremely well in well-drained fertile soils. For best results, the farmer needs to ensure that the lands are free of large stones and that the farm has enough light. The light encourages shoot growth while fine and well drained soils create the right conditions for carrots roots to grow both in length and breadth.

Soil analysts recommend that carrots should be grown in soils whose pH is between 6.5 and 7.5. Additionally, the soil should have enough potassium, but should not have excess nitrogen. Potassium is an essential mineral in growing carrots since it enhances the sweetness and solid nature of carrots. Too much nitrogen, however, results in branched, fibrous and hairy carrots and should, therefore, be avoided.

Planting carrots is rather straightforward. As the farmer, you need to prepare the land well, by digging and raking out weeds. You also need to ensure you are working with fine soil since the carrot seeds are tiny and may struggle to germinate in lumpy soils. Some farmers prefer to raise the carrot beds and make half-inch deep furrows to contain the seeds. Other farmers prefer to make un-raised carrot beds while making half-inch deep furrows to contain the seeds. Still, other farmers choose to plant carrots through a broadcast approach where the carrot seeds are ‘broadcasted’ on the farm, watered, and left to germinate without the farmer covering them with soil. Of the three approaches, the first and second options are preferable since they allow the farmer to cover his carrot seeds with at least 0.5 centimetre of soil. Additionally, planting in furrows allows the farmer to thin and weed his crop well.

Specifically, make furrows that are two centimetres deep and use 15 centimetre spacing. This spacing leaves enough room for the carrot foliage to grow well as the crop matures. Due to the tiny nature of seeds, it is hard to space them well. However, you can mix the seeds with some light soil to make sowing and spacing a lot easier. When the crop germinates, ensure that you thin the carrots within two weeks of germination. Aim at leaving about 2cm to 4 cm of space between individual carrot seedlings. This spacing will encourage healthy root growth. Before thinning, water the carrots to make the pulling easy. Thinning can be repeated after three weeks if necessary.

Carrots mature in about 110 days (approximately four months). You can check for maturity by brushing aside some soil and inspecting whether the carrot root has attained the desired diameter. Alternatively, you can just pull out a few carrots and decide whether they are mature for the market. The most common carrot varieties in Kenya are Nantes and Super Kuroda. Both varieties have a yield potential of 17 tonnes per acre.

Diseases and pests to look out for when growing carrots include powdery mildew, black rot, Fusarium, aphids and the carrot fly.

Becoming an Agriculture Entrepreneur

If you want to be a SERIOUS agriculture entrepreneur in West Africa or anywhere else, you will need to be just that – a serious, agriculture entrepreneur. Serious because agriculture is no joke, and an entrepreneur because you will need to treat agriculture as a business. In other words you’ll need to think like a business man/woman.

Business people go into business for different reasons; some because they are pursuing a passion, other’s because they are broke and jobless, and others because they come from a family of business people. The common denominator among all business people is that they are all in business for the money. The really successful business people are few. I say this knowing that success is relative and that one’s person notion of success may be different from what another perceives success to be. To me, a successful agriculture entrepreneur is the one who recognise a specific consumer need that must be satisfied, identifies how to satisfy the consumer need, does his/her research and recognizes how best to satisfy that consumer need, determines whether it makes good business, and finally goes ahead to satisfy the consumer need and in the end, makes profit from the same.
In other words, an agricultural entrepreneur is able to plan and strategise and determine whether something is worth his/her time, effort and investment. He/she understands that good profits are obtained from a good strategy that includes serving prevailing market needs, with the right products, at the right time, place and price. This is basic marketing tips that every good agriculture entrepreneur understands. Whoever said customer is king needs to speak once more; this time, he needs to be heard by the farmers.

In Nigeria, people are flocking into agriculture in droves. This is a good thing, because as we all grew up hearing, ‘agriculture is the backbone of this country’. What most people do not know is that there is a difference between agriculture just for the sake of it (e.g. where people grow cassava just because the produce will be bought at whatever price by the brokers), and agriculture entrepreneurship (i.e. where people grow produce to serve a specific market need, and with a specific profit motive e.g. when someone recognizes a honey supply deficit in the market and therefore invests in bee keeping, knowing too well that the honey market is lucrative).
An old saying states that an old dog cannot learn new tricks, and for most of us, we are old (albeit being relatively young in age) when it comes to the mentality we have developed over the years. I do not know about you, but my agricultural teacher often stressed the point that small scale farming is for subsistence farmers, while large scale farming is what made real money for farmers. Loosely translated, that meant subsistence farming is a mere survival tactic. In other words, the farmer will never go hungry, but neither will he/she ever become wealthy as a result of his farming. I humbly submit that it is time we demystify such notions.

In Nigeria today, such mentality has been overtaken by events because, first, we have less arable land per person because of increased land subdivision. While my father was planting his cassava in his entire 45 acres of land, I can only farm on a fifteenth part of the land which I inherited from him. Does that mean that I can only get a fifteenth of the income he used to generate from his farm? Certainly not. I have to find ways to maximize the yields from the little land I have. Secondly, it has been proven that it’s not the size of the land that really matters, but what you do with it. Economies of scale still suggest that one can do much more, and at lesser costs when one has a bigger farm, but that does not mean that the rest of us whose farms are small cannot become agricultural entrepreneurs. All we need to do is be strategic. An agricultural entrepreneur for example can plant spinach in bags instead of planting potatoes in a ¼ acre piece of land. It does not matter how much he/she loves potato farming; the rule of the thumb is, if it does not make economic sense, leave it.
There is so much I can write about in regard to being an agricultural entrepreneur. However, (and because I do not want to bore you), the main ones have been covered herein: They are:

i. What is the market need you want to serve?
ii. Are you able to serve the market need satisfactorily (i.e. without overstretching yourself and disappointing consumers)?
iii. Will your products get to the right market and the right time (e.g. milk getting to the markets when it’s still fresh market at the right time)?
iv. Finally, will the prices make good economic sense to you? (Consider worse market scenarios- e.g. when the market is flooded by similar products from your competitors).

I’ll also tell you what an agriculture entrepreneur is not. He/she is not whimsical –i.e. he/she does not grow or farm something because it’s the ‘in thing’. That means that the agricultural entrepreneur will not rush into rearing quails without first ascertaining whether there is enough consumer need and demand to ensure that his/her quail business is profitable and sustainable. The agricultural entrepreneur is also not reckless about how he/she invests her money. He/she is not into get-rich-quick schemes, and he/she is not ignorant.
As a final note (and this is a no-brainer), every worth agriculture entrepreneur keeps records. It’s the only way to track your expenses, your sales, and determine your losses or profits.
Happy farming Nigeria

Garlic Farming in West Africa

Garlic Farming in West Africa requires farmers to understand the variety of seeds available, the right soil types, and the most suitable climate to grow the crop in. Like anywhere else in the world, garlic farming in West Africa requires a farmer to identify a well-drained piece of land with light soil.  It is important to note that garlic does not grow in water-logged soils.

Garlic also does well in gardens that enjoy full sun. In other words, a farmer should not choose a garden that has too much shade.

Garlic planting is easy, because all one needs to do is get mature garlic – known as seed garlic, separate the cloves, and plant each clove individually.  It is important to note that seed garlic and consumption garlic are similar; however, seed garlic is more mature since it is allowed to stay in the fields longer (usually a minimum period of six months) than consumption garlic. However, consumption garlic is harvested as early as four months.

Farmers who make the mistake of planting consumption garlic usually end up with a poorly germinated crop. Farmers therefore need to be extra careful to get seed garlic from reliable stock lists only. Additionally, some garlic bulbs (especially those imported from Egypt and elsewhere) are treated with growth retardant chemicals to prevent them from germinating on the retail shelves.  The foregoing underscores the need to purchase seed garlic from reliable sources only.

Planting

Plant each clove separately. The pointed part of the clove should be pointing upwards and should be about one (1) inch below the ground.  It’s advisable to plant garlic in rows that are 12 inches apart.  The ideal spacing for garlic seeds in the same row is four (4) inches. It is worth noting that the bigger the clove that one plants, the larger the bulb that he/she is likely to get from the garlic plant once it matures.

Once planted, garlic requires adequate irrigation as this helps the plant to set a full-sized bulb.   However, and as indicated earlier, it is important to avoid water logging.
The only diseases that affect garlic are the garlic white rot and the garlic crop rust.  These two diseases can be minimized through crop rotation.

Maturity, harvesting and Storage

A farmer knows when garlic matures, either by keeping track of the months- growing times is between 4 and 6 months, or waiting for the garlic leaves to wither.  Smart farmers in West Africa will however not leave the garlic bulbs too long in the soil after the leaves have withered because the individual cloves will start sprouting.

To enhance storage, harvested bulbs should be brushed off any dry soil and left to dry in a warm dry place. After this, the bulbs can be stored for up to three months in a dry and well-ventilated room.

Marketing

Garlic farming in West Africa is arguably a money making avenue for farmers. Currently, the demand for the produce is still very high, hence guaranteeing farmers a ready market. The prices that farmers get, however, vary depending on the farmers’ proximity to the market, the garlic sizes, and how well individual farmers are able to bargain with middle men. Like anything else, Garlic farmers in West Africa can choose to bypass the middle men and market their produce directly to consumers, in which case they would enjoy higher profit margins, but would also have to put up with farm-to-market logistics.