How to start a cashew farming business
Let’s briefly discuss the following
Agriculture, Farming, and cassava.
Agriculture
This is the art and science of cultivating the soil, harvesting, growing crops, and raising livestock for necessities for human beings and economic gain. Agriculture is also the production of growing food, fiber, timber, cropping, intensive horticulture, poultry, animal husbandry, intensive animal industry, animal keeping, permanent plantation, wholesale nursery, production nursery, and roadside stall.
It also enables the farmer to produce surplus food. They can use the food when their crops failed or exchange it for other goods. It also allowed people to work on other tasks apart from farming.
Farming
This is a way or method in which people practice cultivating the land for the production of crops, fruits, vegetables, ornamental and flowering plants, and the utilization of farmland for the production of dairy, a livestock system that transforms land and labor into useful products, poultry, and all other forms of agricultural products having a domestic or foreign market.
It also includes the planting, nurturing, and harvesting of trees, with significant attention paid to managing the growth, health, and quality of the trees.
Various crops grow seasonally, cashew is one of the crops that also have a season. It is a long-term investment that can last for many years and most popular crop. It is only that people are highly demanding.
Cashew
Cashew is a lucrative business in Nigeria many people have made a lot of money from it. It is a tree crop that is usually single and spreads inhabit. The cashew tree bends to touch the ground as it grows up or older and spreads fast. It has a height of 11m above with thick and short leaves. People are exporting cashew nuts from one country to another, it is a profitable agricultural business that anyone can start with a little knowledge without stress, unlike other farming businesses. To start a cashew farming business you must follow some steps. Here are the steps on how to start a cashew farming business.
Steps on how to start a cashew farming business
Planning (A business plan)
A business plan is the first thing to be considered before you start anything in life. A business plan is a document that will contain the outline and strategies you want to use and how you want to implement your business idea. It will also serve as a guide, aim, and objective throughout your business. Having a business plan will allow you to borrow a loan from any place including banks.
Capital
Capital is the most essential part of any business if you have capital all the remaining steps are easy. This capital will cover a lot of things like land, seed purchase, workmanship, harvesting, etc. You can approach any place to borrow money it might be from family and friends, banks, your savings, cooperative societies, and other places with your business plan.
Land
This is the third step in farming and it’s easy since you have your capital. Search and select suitable land to set up your plantation. According to the research sandy loam soil with laterite is good for planting cashew. Choose between buying land or leasing it, but the better one is to buy a land because leasing land the owner may increase the leasing fees if the person sees how well your farm is and cashew trees can last for 40 years above, so, in acquiring land for the business, make sure you get a land that you can use for a long period.
Planting
Select the seed you want to use carefully by buying already sprouted seedlings from an established one and planting them in an upright position or you can nurse your seed but it takes 3 years to produce. Cashew is a strong plant that can grow in, especially sandy loam soil. For a farmer to have the best cashew nut, he should be maximizing the rate of planting cashew on land to prevent disease. To plant cashew trees leave some space between one tree to another. It should not be less than 8m and 300 trees per hectare. In my area, we do plant banana trees and some other trees to prevent young cashew trees from blowing with the wind.
Irrigation
In cashew farming, irrigation is an important aspect that we should not miss to produce adequate and regular fruits during the early stage of growth of the cashew tree. Irrigation should be done during the dry season.
Fertilization
Cashew is one of the trees that perform well on poor soil where other crops failed. Applying fertilizer will help the cashew to show a good response. You can give them fertilizer during the growing, fruiting, and flowering stages.
Control of pests and disease
Pests and diseases can cause great damage to your crops they are very dangerous things on a farm. The farmer should take good care of the farm before the pests and diseases attack like Root rot, flower die-back, and twig die-back it is highly recommended to spray your farm with some pesticides and insecticides.
Harvesting
This consists of picking and detaching nuts that have dropped down to the ground after maturing, it is recommended to use a sharp knife for detaching or you can easily use your hand for detaching but it will not fast like a knife. Make sure your cashew farm is free from bushes to make your picking easy. After the nuts have been gathered you can sell them or dried in sun for 1 to 2 days. The dried cashew nut will give you more profit than the wet one.
Storage
Cashew can be stored for some months if it’s well dry and must be put inside the jute bags, avoid any other things like containers, sacks bags, plastic, or flour and it should be placed in a ventilated area to avoid spoilage. The weight of cashew nuts in jute bags must not be higher than 80kg.
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