The peanut, [Arachis hypogaea] also known as the groundnut is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds and for its wonderful unsaturated oil. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics. It is classified as both a grain legume and, because of its high oil content, an oil crop. World annual production of shelled peanuts was 42 million tonnes in 2014. Atypically among crop plants, peanut pods develop underground rather than aboveground. As a legume, the peanut belongs to the botanical family Fabaceae; this is also known as Leguminosae, and commonly known as the bean, or pea, family. Like most other legumes, peanuts harbor symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in root nodules. This capacity to fix nitrogen means peanuts require less nitrogen-containing fertilizer and improves soil fertility, making them valuable in crop rotations.
CULTIVATION
Peanuts grow best in light, sandy loam soil with a pH of 5.9–7. Their capacity to fix nitrogen means that, provided they nodulate properly, peanuts benefit little or not at all from nitrogen-containing fertilizer, and they improve soil fertility. Therefore, they are valuable in crop rotations. Also, the yield of the peanut crop itself is increased in rotations, through reduced diseases, pests and weeds. To develop well, peanuts need warm weather throughout the growing season. They can be grown with as little as 350 mm (14 in) of water, but for best yields need at least 500 mm (20 in). Depending on growing conditions and the cultivar of peanut, harvest is usually 90 to 130 days after planting for subspecies A. h. fastigiatatypes, and 120 to 150 days after planting for subspecies A. h. hypogaea types. Subspecies A. h. hypogaea types yield more, and are usually preferred where the growing seasons are long enough.
Peanut plants continue to produce flowers when pods are developing; therefore even when they are ready for harvest, some pods are immature. The timing of harvest is an important decision to maximize yield. If it is too early, too many pods will be unripe. If too late, the pods will snap off at the stalk, and will remain in the soil. For harvesting, the entire plant, including most of the roots, is removed from the soil. After harvesting peanuts are dried sufficiently, they are threshed, removing the peanut pods from the rest of the bush. It is particularly important that peanuts are dried properly and stored in dry conditions. If they are too high in moisture, or if storage conditions are poor, they may become infected by the mold fungus Aspergillus flavus. Many strains of this fungus release toxic and highly carcinogenic substances called aflatoxins.
PRODUCTION
In 2014, world production of peanuts (in shells) was 43.9 million tonnes out of which Nigeria produced only 3.4 million tons. This is sad going by the fact that Nigeria climate is fantastic for groundnut farming.
The major inputs for commercial SORGHUM farming are; LAND, IMPROVED GRAIN, TRAINING, FERTILISER, DISEASE AND PEST CONTROL, FINANCE and MARKET.
LAND
GROUNDNUT grows best in light, sandy loam soil with a pH of 5.9–7. Procuring Land for such commercial farming has to be done by professionals who have the eagle eye to decode the soil texture without much examination. It is also easier to source for land for agriculture through professionals because they have extensive network and can arrange Land for you in short notice and in a cost effective manner. There is little need to purchase land for farming in large scale from the beginning as this will tie down available capital, thus it is advisable to lease and subsequently pay for the land from the proceed of the farm. BUSINESS ADVISORY NETWORK is a guru in this regard and will help you arrange choice farm land at the best rate, all you have to do is to talk to us.
TRAINING
We will guide you on best planting season, spacing, fertilizer type, how to source fertilizer, fertilizer application. Weed control, Crops you may intercrop with GROUNDNUT, the effects of intercropping on GROUNDNUT yield, Storage and processing.
FINANCE
The central bank of Nigeria has a lot of incentives/ credits for commercial farmers at a reduced interest rate of 9% per annum. Most of these are organized by the central bank of Nigeria although accessed through the commercial bank. BAN will guide you on how to source credit under any of these credits listed below;
Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF) The Fund guarantees credit facilities extended to farmers by banks up to 75% of the amount in default net of any security realized. The Fund is managed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, through this guarantee it is easy For commercial banks to loan to farmers not fearing
Agricultural Credit Support Scheme (ACSS) ACSS funds are disbursed to farmers and agro-allied entrepreneurs at a single-digit interest rate of 8.0 percent. At the commencement of the project support, banks will grant loans to qualified applicants at 14.0 per cent interest rate. Applicants who pay back their facilities on schedule are to enjoy a rebate of 6.0 per cent, thus reducing the effective rate of interest to be paid by farmers to 8.0 per cent.
Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) This credit scheme is specifically targeted to finance the country’s agricultural value chain (production, processing, storage and marketing). The maximum interest rate to the borrower under the scheme shall not exceed 9 per cent, inclusive of all charges.
Nigeria Incentive Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending ( NIRSAL) Risk is the single-most important factor that prevents banks from lending to agriculture. To change banks’ perception that agriculture is a high-risk sector, NIRSAL has a USD300 Million Risk-Sharing Facility that it uses to share their losses on agricultural loans through Credit Risk Guarantees. NIRSAL shares risk with banks ranging from 30% to 75% of face value depending on segment.
This also includes a guarantee fee of 1% per annum on outstanding protected principal and interest. Up to 40% of interest cost rebated to select value chain participants every 90 days if loan remains in good standing (no partial or full default). All crops, livestock and related supportive economic activity across the value chain are supported by this facility.
The news is that government is willing and doing everything to encourage farming in Nigeria because that’s where the country straight lies. Nigeria is endowed with arable land and fresh water resources when viewed as a whole with approximately 61 million hectares of the land cultivable while the total renewable water resources is about 280 km3/year; which include river Niger, river Benue, lake Chad, Osun river, Hadejia River, Bonny river and a host of others. The major soil types in Nigeria, according to FAO soil taxonomist are fluvisols, regosols, gleysols, acrisols, ferrasols, alisols, lixisols, cambisols, luvisols, nitosols, arenosols and vertisols. These soil types vary in their potential for agricultural use according to FAO.
Nigerian soils can be classified into groups made up of four (climatic) zones that are soil associations. The groups are:
- Northern zone of sandy soils
- Interior zone of laterite soils
- Southern belt of forest soils
- Alluvial soils Zones
Northern zone of sandy soils: This area lies in the very northern parts of the country. This area lies in the extreme north with proximity to the fringes of the fast- encroaching Sahara desert. It is characterized by soils formed by deposition of sand by the wind. These soils might have been formed from wind-sorted desert sands that accumulated over long periods of time when the Sahara desert encroached several kilometers south of its present limits. The soils of this zone are very good in the production of groundnut, sorghum, cowpea, and millet.
Interior zone of laterite soils: This zone is made up of a mixture of sand and clay. They are grey to black clay, poorly drained and seasonally flooded forming the “fadama”. The Biu Plateau has rich soil that is productive and offers prospects for the expansion of the areas of cotton production, soybeans, yam and other legumes.
Southern belt of forest soils: Soils in this zone broadly represent those of the humid, tropical forest climate zones of the south where the wet season is long, the harmattan season short and forest cover is dense. Local soil types depend largely on parent rock; where the underlying rocks are granite or clay, the soils is a rich clayey loam. These soils are very good in growing crops like cocoa, oil palm, rubber, Cassava.
Zone of alluvial soils: These soils are found along the flooded plains of rivers, deltas, along the coastal flats. This zone extends from the coastal inland and runs along the valleys of the Niger and the Benue rivers, thus cutting across the vegetational zones. Soils in this zone are characteristic of fresh-water soil of grey to white sand, grey clay and sandy clay with humid topsoil. Another group consists of brownish to black saline mangrove soils, with a mat of rootlets. This soil type is very good for rice etc.
FARM EQUIPMENT
BAN will also help in securing farming equipment. This may be achieved through the federal and state government partnership with the support of any of the credit schemes. Through this farm equipment can be acquired or leased.
MARKET
Demand for GROUNDNUT is high both locally and internationally. GROUNDNUT is grown mainly for its edible seeds and for its wonderful unsaturated oil, it is also used in animal feed production and many other things. A farmer may decide to add value and export or sell locally depending on his business plan.
SECURITY
Security of the farm is of utmost importance, thus adequate security must be put in place to eliminate/ reduce pilferage in the farm.
SORGHUM VALUE CHAIN
We will not only guide you on GROUNDNUT farming. We will introduce you to GROUNDNUT business value chain depending on your interest. Even though this requires huge investment, the return is enormous and the market potential is also huge. If you are desirous of farming with minimal discomfort and also wants to stay out of other losses that might result due to lack of planning talk to us at BAN.