How To Start Cucumber Farming In Nigeria

Cucumber farming is one venture that can actually surprise anyone who cares to go into it. While thousands of young men and women are busy pursuing higher degrees in education and hoping to get employed by one big firm or the other, those who saw the goldmine in cucumber farming are not giving any damn to that as their ventures are adequately taking good cares of them financially.

If you still care to have things done differently instead of investing your hard earned money in some businesses that you don’t even know much about and which the profit potentials may look somehow obscured, then it would make a serious economic sense to consider venturing into cucumber farming.

How Big Is Cucumber Farming In Nigeria

The good thing about this wonderful vegetable is that it is consumed worldwide and the demands of it is very high which knocks off the the ideas of whether you would be able to sell it. Go ahead and give cucumber farming a trial and see for yourself that you has been unknowingly allowing millions of naira or even dollars to slip away carelessly.

There’s no two ways about it that no nation can survive without good provision made or put in place for the importation of foods of various types for the citizens. So anyone that is looking for a business to start and hope to make something more meaningful and lasting should consider looking into agricultural direction because it is a seldom sector of the economy which only few clever ones are diverting into and are silently making a enough kill.

The issue of cucumber farming is not to taken for a joke because if done rightly, one would see all his investments multiplying in quantum. A cucumber farmer while describing his business, said that it is like “a glass business, which you will be seeing yourself while doing”.

Cucumber is a vegetable that is widely consumed all over the world due to its health benefits which both the educated and non-educated individuals testify to.

Talk about anything concerning cucumber and you are sure to know more about the wonderful benefits of the global vegetable.

Cucumber is wonderful in the fight against cancer, treatments for diabetics, skin irritations, bad breath, and can be used to re-hydrate the body and regain one’s self from dryness.

It is also great sources of vit. A,B1,B6, and D which is known globally and not just in one particular location in the world. Having established all these interesting facts about cucumber, it is now time for us to look into the steps necessary for you to consider owning your own cucumber farm and share in the pure profits that it brings.

Bear in mind that you don’t need huge amount of money to go into cucumber farming, what really matter is getting things right at first before going into it fully which is what this article is all about.

Step 1. Conduct Your Research

Make research on all that is necessary to start the business because that is usually the wisest thing to do while venturing into a new thing. Try and isolate various types of or species of cucumber and know the particular ones that thrives in the area which you may want to have your farm in.

Gather information from your possible customers and know the tricks to employ so that your produce hardly leave the farm before it’s sold off. In simple term here, what I’m saying is, conduct feasibility studies and do it rightly.

Farmers don’t usually consider having a clearly written business plan as important thing, but this will give you an edge over others. With a good business plan, you can easily attract investors and other financial institutions to fund your farm to become  highly sought after. But this depends on your ability in managing it properly for the likely investors to see. And this you should do without any fears because cucumber markets itself.

Step 2. Get A Suitable Land In Good Location

If you had tried growing cucumber on small scale, you may have noticed that it produces as long as there is a bit sunshine there, but to really get the best out of your investments, getting a rich humid soil can serve multiple purposes. Firstly, it lowers the over head costs of getting water for irrigating the vegetable which enables it to produce the big and greenish types that are highly sought after. When you spend less on irrigation by having your farm close to water bed, your profit would climb.

Step 3. Get The Land Ready And Plant The Seed

Plan adequately to moisten the ground by adding fertilizer after clearing and tilling the soil. Then after that, plant your cucumber in a hole of about 2.5cm deep and a space of 50cm apart from each other to enable it grow each one on its own without having to be struggling against themselves.

Another important thing to do is to have the farm land in rows and columns to allow for easy human passage or tractors as the case may be. Making it that way also allows for easy harvesting and sometimes weeding

Step 4. Harvesting and Disposing Your Produce

For sure! you didn’t just go into the business to for the fun of it but to make money. One unique thing about cucumber which makes it different from other vegetables is its market value. You hardly struggles to sell your cucumber. All you have to do is to inform the locals that you have it for sale and have them trooping down to you.

You either retail your cucumber for more profits or share it with others for easy disposals, you even stand some chances of contacting big companies that process cucumber which can even give you more exposures to market your products. Cucumber only stays between 50 to 70 days before harvesting which could be done everyday and as when due.

Another thing about cucumber is that the organically planted ones are always more attractive and sweet/expensive than the normal ones. Also be ready to ward off pests by using the right kind of pesticide in case of insects attacks.

The purpose of looking for cucumber varieties while planting is not because of any other thing apart from the soil type. Cucumber is very popular and delicious and highly disease-resistant. It also produce over a long season in hot or cold weather too. Even before thinking of exportation, the local demands for cucumber are not yet met not to talk of exporting.