@gmain,luttz sounds like a worthy investment. Il talk to my maker to delay the el-nino. From what i hav gathered,er..wheat will be good for starters,with less labour needed + short period be4 harvestin. So,in this market,how much does a bag of wheat fetch,i work backwards. What are the chances of climate change affecting the crop? Im just curious,what hapened to sunflower?



“Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.”

10 acres for maize farming is not ideal unless you are not commercial oriented. If you intend to go commercial,you need to be thinking of 30 plus acres,that way you will be sure to break even at about 15 acres and make some money out of it. However costs are as follows ( only guideline)

Lease of land: 2.5 t0 3k per acre
Land preparation< 1st and 2nd: 4k per acre
Seeds: 1.5k per acre
Fertilizer: 4.5k per acre
Planting with tractor: 1.2 k per acre
Spraying- manual: 500 bob per acre
Harvesting: 2k per acre
Shelling: 15 bob per bag of maize

Hope this helps

if you re working frm far,pls do wheat,,,,rather than maize.coz its labor intensive.Am in Nbi and always planting wheat in a 20 acre in kitale.Its very manageable,Have not been there this year but am expecting to harvest in 2wks time.
You cant imagine it takes only less than 4 months compared to maize,no much of human labor.

When you choose the lesser of two evils,always remember that its still an Evil.

cost per acre put it average 20k if you are renting land.timing is simple and not cumbersome.1st plaugh Jan-March depending on weather,should dry season,if land is fine no need for 2nd you harrow same day as you plant,this will be frm june-july,you got all time frm jan - jun to buy seeds and fertilizers.

Amonth after planting do a spray for weeds if its raining do spray for rust .come oct - nov harvest and dispose even same day if you dont want to deal with NCPD which sometimes can really hurt.I always sell to middlemen less 200-3 sok per bag than to incur trans cost,labor,and long ques at cereals.Boss its all worth risking,,,,,when everything is ok the returns are fantastic,,,i started with 10 .

When you choose the lesser of two evils,always remember that its still an Evil.

An acre will give approximately 15 to 20 bags,average but can get more than this,depending on how you take care of your crop. Maize farming gets juicer when you do it on commercial basis since inputs come down considerably. For example,assuming you are planting 100 acres,the best option wil be to get second hand tractor at approxiamtely 800k. With an estimated 15k per acre as input,for 100 acres,the total cost will be approximately 1.5m. 40% of this goes to the tractor owner,so assuming,you own the tractor,your costs will be reduced by a huge margin. Furthermore,the tractor will work for other small scale farmers bringing in more income. When you look at the numbers involved here,its a worthy venture,only challenge is rain. This year,my neighbour committed suicide after taking a loan to plant 80 acres and his timing was wrong,he lost more than half the crop (he could not even wait for harvesting in late September/early October) and he could not imagine facing the bank. All in all,farming like any other business is a risk. Its good to diversify - go green here,then conventional farming there