HOW TO MAKE WEALTH IN CASSAVA FARMING BUSINESS HOW TO MAKE WEALTH IN CASSAVA FARMING BUSINESS | Page 15

A COMPREHENSIVE & PRACTICAL GUIDE ON HOW TO START CASSAVA FARMING & PROCESSING BUSINESS By: Micheal B. O. FERTILIZATION FOR CASSAVA FARM If cassava yields drop, no fertilisation is required when the land is freshly cleared or when there is enough land to enable the cultivator to substitute new land for old land. Like all rapidly growing plants yielding carbohydrates, cassava has high nutrient requirements and soil depletion very quickly occurs. When the crop is grown on the land for a number of years in succession or in rotation, the store of certain nutrients in the soil will be reduced and must therefore be replenished by means of fertilisation. This depletion of nutrients is aggravated by the introduction of high-yielding cassava varieties and the promotion of production for both food security and export. The application of fertilisers causes significant increases in yield of roots as well as starch content. Potassium salts favour the formation of starch while nitrogen and phosphorus are essential for growth. However, if the soil contains large quantities of assimilated nitrogen, the result will be a big increase in vegetal growth without a corresponding rise in tuber production. Small-scale farmers use different kinds of organic manures such as cattle or chicken manure. The kinds and quantities of fertilisers required by a cassava crop depend on the nature of the soil. Soil analysis is therefore important to determine the quantity of fertiliser that has to be applied. Cassava removes large quantities of N, P, K and Mg; a crop of 25 kg/ha of cassava removes about 60 kg/ha of N, 40 kg/ha of P2O5 and 136 kg/ha of K2O. Thus the aim in using soil analysis results should be to replace the removed nutrients. Hotlines: 09090040011, 09031617999. 15. E-mail: [email protected]