A COMPREHENSIVE & PRACTICAL GUIDE ON HOW TO START CASSAVA FARMING & PROCESSING BUSINESS By: Micheal B. O.
INTER- CROPPING
Cassava can be intercropped with vegetables, plantation crop, yams, sweet potatoes, melon maize, rice and leguminous crops. With effective farm management, a farmer should be able to produce between 25-30 ton of maize per hectare with the potential to produce two to three times a year with irrigation facilities. The bottom line is that the investor ' s potential is the ability to manage the agronomic operations of the farm effectively.
IRRIGATION
Cassava is quite drought tolerant and is rarely irrigated, but it does produce better yields when it is regularly watered and the soil is not allowed to dry out completely.
WEED CONTROL FOR CASSAVA FARM Weeding is recommended when the cassava plants are 20 to 25 cm tall, that is, three or four weeks after planting. Weed a second time one or two months after the first weeding. Earth up the plants at the same time; this greatly promotes the formation of tubers, and prevents the wind from blowing the plants down. After this step the plants are big enough to prevent weeds from growing. When rain spoils the mounds, they must be remade. When the soil of the mounds gets too hard, it should be broken up with a hoe to allow water and air to get in to nourish the roots.
WEED CONTROL AND LAND PREPARATION A total herbicide: Round up( a glyphosate) should be applied at the rate of 4 – 5 l / ha 10 days before land preparation. For cost effectiveness and optimum plant population, mechanization and planting on ridges are recommended.
WEED CONTROL BEFORE PLANTING CASSAVA Ten days before starting land preparation, a total herbicide should be applied to the land where you want to start planting cassava at the rate of 4.5 litres per hectare. If you want to cut down costs, it ' s advisable to mechanize most cassava production processes. A litres of this herbicide is between # 1,000- # 1,500.
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