Groundnut Farming Techniques and Plan is bringing to your perusal the stepwise procedure involved in setting up a groundnut farm from beginning to end.
Groundnut Farming Business Plan
How to do Groundnut Farming:
- Selection of Site for your Groundnut farm
- Choice of Seed for your groundnut farm
- Planting Groundnut on your Groundnut farm
- Weed should be checked on your Groundnut farm
- Control of pests and Diseases should be in order on your Groundnut Farm
- Harvesting of groundnuts on your Groundnut farm
- Storage of Groundnut
Groundnut is highly nutritious and a very important source of high-quality cooking oil. Research has proven that Nigeria produces over 1.55 million metric tonnes of groundnut annually and is incumbently the largest producer of groundnut in Africa and the fourth largest in the world.
Read Also: 7 Step to Step Guide on How to Start Cucumber Farming Business
However, groundnut is mainly cultivated in the northern part of Nigeria because they grow well in arid or semi-arid regions (well-drained soil with warm temperature).
Groundnut is grown majorly for its nuts, oil, and vegetative residue. Aside from groundnut being consumed as a confectionery snack after frying, it is also used in making peanuts, groundnut oil, peanut cakes, and lots more.
The groundnut oil extract is also used industrially in making paint, lubricating oil, soaps, leather dressings, furniture polish, insecticides, and nitroglycerin.
Groundnut shells are used in the manufacture of plastic, wallboard, abrasives, cellulose, and lots more.
Owing to the wide range of groundnut consumption domestically and industrially, groundnut farmers smile tremendously.
This is because their products are always in demand. Groundnut farming is extremely lucrative especially when it is done with vast knowledge.
Read Also: Step to Step Guide on How to Start Onion Farming
Groundnut Farming Business Plan and Guides:
1. Selection of Site for your Groundnut farm
Acquire land with well-drained sandy or loamy soil. Also, groundnuts do well on soil types whose pH concentration is slightly acidic about 6-7.
Examine soil temperature to be about 30C. Also, clear all weeds and residue on the land before planting.
Add potassium or phosphorus-based fertilizer before planting to help boost soil fertility for optimal crop growth.
2. Choice of Seed for your groundnut farm
Groundnut seeds are susceptible to damage and should be handled with care.
Damaged seeds will not germinate and grow well. Therefore, it is important to plant high-quality seeds. Good seeds will yield a good harvest.
Groundnut seeds are also prone to fungal rot in the soil. Fungicidal seed treatment can help limit seed decay in the soil. This is why it is advisable to treat your seeds before planting.
Read Also: Step to Step Guide on How to Start Poultry Farming in Nigeria
3. Planting Groundnut on your Groundnut farm
Ensure the soil is warm at the time of planting. It is generally recommended not to plant in the morning, rather let the sun warm up the soil before planting.
The seeds need optimal moisture content hence, the soil must have had a couple of rainfalls before seeds are planted.
This is because research has proven that Groundnuts planted in dry soil and then irrigated, germinates slower than groundnuts that have been planted in moist soil. Groundnut can be sown on ridges or flat surfaces.
The seeds should be 5-6cm deep into the soil and well-spaced with about 75cm between rows and 30cm within rows.
It is advisable to give good space for each planted seed to bring about a healthy yield.
4. Weed should be checked on your Groundnut farm
Weeds compete for limited soil resources with crops. Weeds compete for moisture, nutrition, light, and space.
Therefore, it is highly essential to eradicate the weed in order to have a good yield. This could be done by spraying chemicals and mechanically removed.
Read Also: Guide on How to Start a Football Viewing Center
5. Control of Pest and Diseases should be in order on your Groundnut Farm
One devastating disease that attacks groundnut is the groundnut rosette disease.
Groundnuts are highly susceptible to this disease and also prone to attacks from pests such as Beetles, aphids, caterpillars, and groundnut borers.
The best way to control the disease attack is to plant resistant varieties. These varieties have been treated to be resistant to diseases and possess high crop yield quality.
6. Harvesting groundnuts on your Groundnut farm
Groundnuts take about 14 weeks to get mature. Harvesting groundnut is the most tedious in its cultivation.
It comprises the following stages: digging, lifting, stocking, and threshing.
However, some of these stages could be boycotted depending on the system applied.
Harvesting should be done when the leaves begin to turn brown (the inner rib of groundnut turning brown is also an indication). The pods are recovered from the soil by digging.
However, a great number of pods could be lost if the crop has passed the stage of full maturity and the soil has hardened.
This is why you sprinkle water from your irrigation for hours to soften the soil. Then use a blade to cut off the plant roots below the soil surface and manually pull out the plant.
In the absence of irrigation, use a tractor-driven digger to loosen soil, then pull out manually. Dry harvested plants in sun for a few days before removing the pods.
Read Also: Step to Step Guide on How to Start Fish Farming in Nigeria
7. Storage of Groundnut
Dry pods are best stored in bags and kept on wooden planks to prevent dampness. Oil could also be extracted using a manual oil press machine or groundnut expeller machine.
Also, the residue after oil extraction is consumed by livestock. Therefore, could be sold to livestock farmers.
We hope this was helpful!
