STARTUP: How to start a vegetable farm using tyres. Agriculture is the next big thing as all creatures need food,and with the estimated 9 billion people to be fed by 2050 all hands must be on deck to produce more food.
The need to produce more food has opened up new frontiers of farming as many people are using unconventional means to plant,many have turned to urban agriculture for profit and sustainability.
The use of bottles,plastics,sacs barrels have been explored to plant vegetables but a very unconventional method still untapped is the use of tyres to start a vegetable farm.
STARTUP: How to start a vegetable farm using tyres.
The use of old tyres to start a vegetable farm though very unconventional its very convenient and ecofriendly. Old tyres can be recycled and used in agricultural projects such as raising snails, making mattress for cows to increase milk yield, starting a fish farm ,planting vegetables, roses e.t.c.
The use of tyres for agricultural projects is a good alternative to the current method of disposing tyres is burning which pollutes the atmosphere with severe health implications for man and climate warming.
The project you want to embark on will determine the size of tyres to use and how to arrange them or stack them up to produce the result you desire.
The tyres could even be layered so that you have more than a row of vegetables or sectioned so you have 2 or 3 sections in the tyres to produce more with less space.
STARTUP: How to start a vegetable farm using tyres.
1) Get old tyres,clean,wash and disinfect and set out to dry. The tyres can be painted to add a color code to your farm and also make it attractive.
2) Prepare the site for the tyres,this must be clean,free of weeds and in an easy accessible place. The tyre is now further prepared by using a black plastic(polythene) to cover the base and to prevent any weeds then place a wire mesh on top to keep steady and create a partition between the surface and tyre base.
3) Get the soil which must be treated to ensure no pests are inside.
4) Get your compost and mix with soil to prepare for planting. #tyres.
How to minimize water borne disease in hydroponics. Although using a hydroponics system may eliminate soil borne pests, there are pests and fungi that spread through water, which means cleaning equipment and using an additional filtration system can drastically help reduce the occurrence of disease spreading.
Heat and moisture in an irrigation system left untreated can create an optimal atmosphere for the development of water molds, like Pythium and Phytophthora. These molds can be brought into contact with plants through growing media, which in the case of hydroponics means through recirculating water. These molds can also be transferred from dirty plant trays and plugs or dirty greenhouse surfaces. The microflora in a hydroponics system can develop very quickly, within 20 hours of planting infected plants, bacteria can be traced throughout a system.
Symptoms of Pythium present themselves as it eats away at the plant root and attacks the root, which results in stunted growth and plant death. Growers often refer to this mold as root rot.
Phytophthora comes in two major varieties that are known to attack floriculture crops, causing root, crown and foliar blight. Essentially, both varieties of this bacterial disease can decimate a crop very easily if using hydroponics systems without an additional filtering system.
Some systems come with screen or paper filters to filter out large-sized particles and debris, but often more is needed to combat water borne diseases effectively. For this reason, it is recommended to add or combine a number of additional filtering systems. more
Broilers are birds raised for meat and have a short production span of 42 days. The uniqueness of the broiler breed in its ability to turn feed to meat at a short time makes it a viable investment opportunity for short term investors.
The production must be started with active,alert and normal chicks without any deformity,the quality of the day old chicks will determine outcome of project. Healthy birds must be selected to prevent losses as consumers are interested in well muscled and good quality birds. #poultry
The factors to consider when you want to set up a broiler farm are as follows : 1) Land 2) water 3)quality of chicks 4) feed 5) equipment 6) management.
Land: the poultry site should be a well drained site,without swamps or waterlogged areas. The land must not be bushy,or surrounded by bushes to limit the risk of rodents,reptiles and other predators. The land should be accessed,topography noted and the environmental impact assessment of project should be documented.
Water:there must be on site a functioning source of clean water. The source of water must be readily accessible and it must be treated to ensure safety. Quality of chicks, are very important as the quality will determine outcome. Quality day old chicks must be sourced from reputable hatchery,and chicks must be alert and active. #poultry
Feed is important when you are thinking of production,as the quality of feed will determine rate of growth and profit potential. Feed could be sourced locally,purchased from miller or setting up a feed mill to cater for your birds. read #poultry
Equipment: the brooder,feeder,drinkers and farm tools are also important in production. The size,spacing and location of feeder and drinkers is vital to success of the production.
Management: its important to practice an all in all out system,do not mix different ages and batches of birds. Biosecurity measures must be in place to ensure safety of birds and farm lands. Labor is vital to the success of the farm, skilled and unskilled hands are necessary for overseeing different aspects of operation.Waste management is an environmental issue and as such proper waste disposal techniques should be put in place. Litter type and management is another factor as the success of the project depends on how you use,handle and dispose it. #poultry
Vaccinations should be carried out as at when due. read There is a need to engage the services of a veterinarian to assist with animal health and welfare issues. #poultry
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in collaboration with Chi Farms and Niji Foods, has launched two new agribusiness partnerships
Mission Director of USAID Nigeria, Michael T. Harvey, said: “With Nigeria’s increasing population, these programmes are vital to achieving food security and imports,” adding: “Public-private partnerships are a proven way of expanding investment in agriculture, improving both efficiency and productivity.” Through these partnerships, USAID aims to address development and business challenges to agricultural inputs and mechanisation by providing quality technical advisory services and expanded market opportunities for smallholder farmers.”
These partnerships will also capitalize on the untapped potential of small-holder farmers and small processors to help grow agribusinesses, create secure jobs, and boost economic growth in Nigeria.
According to operators of Chi Farms: “Recognising the need to increase Nigeria’s domestic fish production to meet growing demand and end reliance on imported fish, Chi Farms – under this partnership – will train 1,000 small-holder fish farmers in Lagos and Ogun States on new farming techniques, access to credit, and marketing skills to help raise incomes.
Another partner in the agriculture project, Niji Foods, said that despite the volume of cassava processed in Nigeria and the commercial potential of cassava peel for livestock feed, there is virtually no commercially-available livestock feed made from cassava peel. Read
Niji Foods, with the International Livestock Research Institute, and USAID support, is establishing three cassava peel processing centres to address this market gap, see
Read more in the agriculture daily
The smart pot has sensors that detect the status of a plant, like whether it’s receiving enough water and sunlight, or if soil conditions are optimum. Even though Greenopia is catering to smaller segment, its influence on the plant cultivation is interesting.
Food packaging and transport is an important part of the food chain,food must be delivered fresh and valuable. The majority of food waste that arises in the value chain is simply because of lack of adequate preservation and packaging technique to ensure the food is delivered fresh.
The rural farmers and small holder farmers that produce majority of food shipped out lack all these innovations and end up losing money due to waste as a result of spoilage of food.The innovations in this area must be cheap ,readily available and simple and easy to operate.
In California ,purfresh is addressing some of the challenges ; purfresh reduce decay, reduce pathogens, control ripening, and enhance food safety all at once .
Purfresh doesn’t use any chemicals to solve these challenges rather they make use of the power of ozone. Ozone (O3) oxidizes decay causing & pathogenic microbial that results in reducing decay and it also removes Ethylene resulting in controlling the ripening of fruits.
Snails like any other animal must be fed a balanced ration with necessary supplements. Snails are fed various vegetables among other types of feed,but calcium must be part of the diet to ensure proper growth.
The snails can get the calcium supplement either by spraying the grounded chalk solution on the body,or the crushed chalk can be finely grounded and added to the vegetables. The calcium solution can also be sprayed on the feed, before serving the snails. There are various ways to present the feed with calcium but the key is that all snails must have access. The pictures below shows,the preparation of feed with calcium supplement; #snails
Litter management using litter amendments which play a crucial role in controlling ammonia. Amendments that decrease litter pH increase ammonia suppression.This can be done solely or as an adjunct to windrowing.
The first step in reconditioning litter is de-caking or removing wet material primarily below drinkers. Amendments are then applied on top of the litter these create unfavorable conditions for the bacteria and enzymes that contribute to ammonia formation and production to thrive.
Litter amendments form a pH barrier on top of the litter preventing or slowing the formation of ammonia (NH3+). Acidifiers are most commonly used, binding the volatile ammonia (NH3+) with an acid to form the nonvolatile ammonium salt (NH4+).
Agriculture is the future of our work, with the ever growing population and climate change the techniques of growing food and raising animals need to be improved to cater for the population and ensure food security.
Land now is a scarce resource and many more farmers are utilizing what they have to maximize profits. Agriculture today is not only practiced on farms,today urban farming is the driving force in food production. Urban farming refers too city farming or better still smart farming to produce vegetables that augment income of farmers and provide a means of livelihood for others.
Urban farming can be practiced in various areas such as sidewalks,rooftops,flowerbeds,terraces or even lawns. This type of farming can also be practiced with various items such as in bottles, jars, trough plates ,flower pots,plastic bottles and even in sacks. The hydroponics system is a type of urban farming that utilizes minimal space but still gives the required harvest of vegetables and fish.
Urban farming is fast taking root in Africa as a source of income for the young,old and the young at heart. The sack farming involves planting vegetables in prepared sacks,these can be stacked in courtyards,corners and gardens.The advantage is that more is produced using minimal space,its easy and cheap to start.
Urban farming with sacks is done as follows 1) sacks are filled with manure, soil and small stones that enable water to drain. 2) plant vegetables,onions,spinach from the tops and sides of these sacks referred to as multi-story gardens. The plant are usually watered once a day in the evenings,and the plants are spread with correct pesticides to prevent attack.
Urban farming using sacks is a good and cost effective way to introduce farming to schools, this initiative in the school agric project will not only be a source of learning but can also be a means of income for the school and food for the students. Sack farming will provide a means of income for young school leavers, and unemployed youths who want to farm but they have no land.
City farming, either in sacks or on small bits of land, has taken root in Cameroon, Malawi and Ghana with 25 to 50 percent of all city households said to be engaged in food cropping. In Malawi, 700,000 city dwellers have home gardens while in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo and some schools have their own gardening programs. continue
AGRIBUSINESS: How to start a farm in your bedroom and make millions. Small indoor farms in garage or bedroom are growing in popularity where vegetables and other plants are cultivated and used for salads or sandwiches and make millions are generated.This kind of farm has no fields, ploughs or even soil or sunlight. The new "vertical farm", as it is called, needs very little space and could even be located in the city.
This is popularly referred to as vertical farming,the hydroponics system. This kind of farming is referred to as Controlled - environment agriculture (CEA) which means technology-based food production that provides protection to plants and maintains optimal growing conditions throughout the development of the crop. Production takes place within an enclosed growing structure such as a greenhouse or building with controlled parameters. Watch how they are producing greens in trays (http://MarxFoods.com/Farmbox-Greens)
AGRIBUSINESS: How to start a farm in your bedroom and make millions.
A vertical farm uses hydroponics technology with plants sitting in trays stacked vertically to save space.In hydroponics, plants are grown "using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil" (see Wikipedia here). The roots of the plant sit in water to which nutrients have been added and instead of sun, LED lights shine on the plants. The plants grown are called micro - greens and they take only two weeks to grow. The hydroponics system is a money spinner generating millions fro farmers that are using the technology in homes,bedrooms or even roof tops and how the technology can be adopted to ensure food security. See
The poultry industry is well grounded in Nigeria with an estimated worth of over 100 billion Naira. There are a large number of commercial players and also small holder farmers in the sector most of which are located in the south-western part of the country,with close proximity to Lagos state.
There is a large market for poultry products in the country as evidenced by the 1.2 million tonnes of products smuggled into the country annually,the recent ban on imported poultry products has opened up more markets for home-grown products.
A series of “megatrends” will permanently reshape agribusiness as the world’s producers and industry stakeholders re-calibrate to tackle the challenges of feeding 9 billion people in 2050, reports Christopher Nolan Sr., managing director at global professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.C. (PwC). The PwC’s top five global megatrends include:
1) Demographic shifts.
2) Shift in global economic power.
3) Accelerating urbanization
4). Resource scarcity
5)Evolving technology.
Lagos with a population of about 21 million people with majority in middle and upper class who show preference for poultry products,the state fits perfectly into the mega-trend that will shape agribusiness.
We have the population,(numbers) more people are moving to Lagos, we practice urban-agric and also incorporate greenhouse and biocrop technology.
The state itself has commercial farmers and small holder farmers in the poultry sector churning out large numbers of chicken and eggs .
The state with a vision to be Africa's mega city and global economic financial hub has dedicated zones and areas where poultry farms are domiciled. The state has invested heavily in the poultry sector with poultry estates in Ikorodu,Ojo ,farm settlements in Badagry and a training school in Epe.
The state with a policy thrust to eradicate poverty through infrastructural renewal and development recently embarked on an empowerment programme where cages,poultry equipment,eggs and suitable land was allocated to poultry farmers to upscale their level of production .
The federal government with the Agricultural transformation agenda to increase crop production and also to create value added food processing industries as a means to reduce food imports and create jobs, has given the state a platform to call for private sector participation in the poultry value chain alongside other 22 agricultural chains.
Investments into the poultry industry in the country recently got a boost with a Multi-Net group leading with plans to establish a farm and also the African development bank injecting 34.5 billion naira to boost the agricultural sector.
A partnership between the government and a Portuguese company to establish a feed mill in the country is on going.( pls check earlier posts for details of these investments.)
Investors in the poultry value chain can look into these areas;
1) Processing plant: many of the smuggled products are processed ,indicating the preference for more processed poultry.
A processing plant can process poultry as chicken sausages, canned chicken, processed frozen, stewed or fried.
The introduction of new processed products will not only be very profitable but more jobs will be available as more chicken will be in demand.
2) Egg powder plant; investors can look into this area, egg powder is very important in so many industries and establishment of such will also increase egg sales. The state is embarking on a school feeding programme, where eggs will be part of the menu.
This programme itself demands more eggs to be produced ,and also the eggplant will compliment this effort to ensure that eggs are always available,by extending the shelf-life.
There are seasons where there is egg glut,the egg powder plant will solve this problem and add more economic value to it.
3) Production is another point of investment: we are calling for investors to revamp the industry in terms of more production. This will be traced to the onset of production.
There are partnerships with various hatcheries with various breeds in the country,however new and well established breeds can be introduced into the country, to add to what is on ground and also create a platform for breeding. Breeding centers can be established to fashion- out how to get our own highly productive and hardy breed.
4) Waste management: investors can look into the bio-gas plant to generate electricity and gas or to process as fertilizers which can benefit farmers.
5) Production of fashion accessories: feathers can also be processed and sold as fashion accessories.The blood and fat can also be processed and incorporated into animal feed.
6)Transportation : investors can look into cooling vans,trucks and buses. This is to ensure that the products get to the market in good condition.The transportation of live birds to markets is another area of investment.
A new study from a team at the University of Arizona in the US has found that international travel – along with trade – can be listed as being among the most efficient methods of spreading infectious diseases.
This is due to the fact that people sick with communicable infections may unknowingly board planes and spread their illnesses to both fellow passengers and the residents of their destination country. Led by Charles Perrings, a professor of environmental economics at the university, the team behind the research cited the recent Ebola outbreak as an example – while a global pandemic did not occur, and the majority of the 8,000 people who died from the disease were from the outbreak’s source countries in West Africa, a man from Liberia did become patient zero in the US and later died from Ebola.
Two of his attending nurses also contracted the disease, although they later recovered. While this was a thankfully small-scale example, it can be considered a microcosm of what a larger epidemic or pandemic might look like.
The research paper also pointed towards international trade, mentioning the hoof and mouth outbreak that cost the government of the UK billions, and other diseases such as swine and avian flu.
In terms of solutions, Perrings suggested addressing these issues ‘at the source’, and confronting those behind the import and export of potentially dangerous materials with the risks.
“The recent Ebola outbreak made us realize that we are all just a plane ride away from exposure to emerging infectious diseases,” said Perrings.
“The more trade grows as a proportion of global production, the more likely it is that diseases will be spread through trade, and the higher the economic cost of resulting trade bans. What is at risk is the food we eat, the fibres we wear and build with, and the fuels we burn. In addition, many infectious diseases that affect animals also affect people.
Zoonoses like SARS, MERS, HIV, AIDS [and] highly pathogenic avian influenza all originated in wild animals and were then spread person-to-person through trade and travel.”
He went on to say: “There are two problems to address. One is that disease spread is an unintended (external) effect of trade.
To solve this problem exporters and importers need to be confronted with the risks they impose on consumers. The other is that the control of infectious disease is a public good – the benefits it offers are freely available to all, and so will be under supplied if left to the market.
To solve this problem, we need to undertake co-operative, collective control of infectious diseases at the source.” He suggested financial incentives for risk reduction in developing countries and establishing a global fund to combat and control infectious diseases.
Currently, countries have the right to act defensively in their own interests once a disease is introduced, controlling the outbreak and working to reduce the possibility of reinfection by banning trade with countries that pose a risk. This, however, will not stop new diseases emerging, said Perrings:
“The One Health Initiative suggests that what is needed is co-operative collective action to reduce risk at the source. This requires a partnership between the rich countries that have the resources to fund global prevention, and the poor countries where disease is most likely to emerge.
The management of infectious diseases of animals and plants, like the management of infectious diseases of people, is now a global problem that requires global solutions.
This in turn requires a more strongly co-ordinated and co-operative approach than is currently allowed under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement.”
culled from international travel and health insurance journal.
The role of telecommunication as a tool for food security,food safety and sustainability. This is how to use telecommunication to trace,track and report food fraud thus promoting food safety.
This involves creating a platform , a central data pool of various farmers and agricultural value chain.This platform will be multifaceted, linking all the aspects of the agricultural chain thus providing a tracking and tracing model. This will be a planning tool,marketing tool and learning platform.
The platform will have data of those involved in the various aspect of the chain,their location, the aspect of production they are involved in and the population of the animals.
This information will give data on vaccination/medication, so that at any point in time the health status of various sets of animals can be accessed.
The platform will be a vital tool for planning,because you know the number of birds in chain,the vaccines can be acquired, medications/vitamins can be sourced and distributed.
The platform will be a marketing tool,where manufacturers of drugs,feed,farm tools can reach out to customers.Each chain operator will have a code,this will allow tracing,tracking and tailored medical interventions.
The platform will grant open access to all strata of the chain; linking all aspects together so that customers can access all sale information on the site.
Training and learning will be available on site,with hand outs,webinars and interactive forum;where farmers can be tutored and also create an opportunity for interested farmers and investors to be trained.
veterinarymedicineechbeebolanle-ojuri.blogspot.com Cassava: benefits of garri as a fermented food. Cassava processing involves fermentation which is a plus for gut health. The fermentation process removes the cyanogenic glucosides present in the fres...
