How to Grow Ginger

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Method 1 - In a Pot
  1. Purchase fresh ginger root from a grocery store or market.
  2. Soak your ginger overnight in warm water.
  3. Prepare a 14 inch wide and 12 inch deep pot with potting soil, the loose kind that doesn't pack down when it's watered, and enrich it with plenty of compost. Make sure the pot drains very well. A pot this size can comfortably hold about three pieces of ginger.
  4. Plant just below the surface of the soil, spacing the pieces evenly apart.
  5. Put the pot in an area with light shade at a temperature of 75-85*F. Cooler temperatures will stunt the plants' growth, since ginger is from hot Asia.
  6. Water lightly at first, then more heavily when shoots appear. Keep the plants dry in winter while they're dormant.
  7. In 10-12 months the plant will be mature and 2-4 feet high.
  8. Dig up new sprouts that appear in front of the main plants and either replant them somewhere else (they will form new rhizomes) or use them.


Method 2 - In the Ground
  1. Follow Steps 1 and 2 above.
  2. Find yourself an area of rich, moist, but well-drained soil that is protected from heavy winds and from temperatures below 75*F.
  3. Plant your chunk of ginger with the buds facing up.
  4. Follow Steps 5-7 above.

 

Lessons All Farmers and Aspiring Farmers Need to Note

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Lesson 1
 Business is a passion but farming is an indispensable lifestyle that has no age limit.

Lesson 2
You cannot succeed in anything (business) that you have no passion and commitment in it my colleagues.

Lesson 3.
Trust is a KEY component in any business but always make use of your 6th sense well.

Lesson 4
 While trust is is rated as key component in any business, you must run to interrogate aperson well and know hIm before you surrender your goods. By the same fact remember that as a businessman you need to build confidence among clients and business colleagues that you are honesty and reliable otherwise one simple silly mistake may cost you public confidence which shall ultimately hit your business.

Lesson 5
 Never promise something you can't deliver. If you do current and prospective clients shall keep off your business despite your low costs..

Lesson 6
 Between price and reliability in business circles serious clients may opt in the later.

Lesson 7 
Be the master of your own ideas.Any sub ideas and comments you receive from friends are foes are just but complimentary. Not all compliments are genuine

Lesson 8 
Other people's views or advices are subordinate to yours because you are driving an agenda whose destiny and routes are only known by you and yourself.


Lesson 9 
Any setback in business is a lesson not a deterrent.

 

What is A Successful Agribusiness?

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A successful agribusiness is that which is performing to its expectations/objectives and giving good profit returns. A number of factors are essential to making a successful agribusiness - availability of capital, market opportunities, suppliers of inputs and availability of other resources and good business planning are all essential ingredients to success in business.

In summary they include:

  1.  Pursuance of a good agribusiness opportunity
  2. Good business planning
  3.  Availability of adequate capital/credit facility
  4. Management ability/skills
  5. Use of modern business techniques
  6. Availability of adequate markets


Success in agribusiness is a personal responsibility as much as the external environmental factors may have an influence. Successful agribusinesses we see around never dropped from heaven! They are a result of great initiatives, effort and a commitment to achieve in the midst of all odds. You must be ready and proud to stand on your own and pursue what you belief is a journey to success.

This will require:

  • An eye for opportunity
  •  Appetite for hard-work
  • Discipline
  • Independence
  • Honesty
  • Creativity
  • Experience
  • Self-confidence
  • Adaptability
  • Ability to tolerate stress
  • Thirst and focus on profit


All the above factors sum into what I popularly refer to as the “business success formula”: BS = A x M x O where, BS is business success, A is ability, M is motivation and O is opportunity. What this formula implies is that for anyone to succeed in agribusiness, his/her abilities and motivation must meet with opportunity. In business, you can only get business results or profits by exploiting opportunities!

 

10 Things to Consider Before Quitting Your Day-Job to Become a Farmer

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Here are ten things that you need to know before ditching that job to get into agribusiness:

1. You Need to Have Passion for Agriculture

Before entertaining the thought of diving into agriculture, ask yourself if you have any interest whatsoever in agriculture? The returns might sound enticing but are you the kind of person who likes plants or animals and taking care of them? Have you previously done anything to do with agriculture? Do you even have a kitchen garden? If you hate the thought of dirt on your hands, then agribusiness is not for you.

2. Identify Your Area of Interest

After assuring yourself that indeed agriculture is one of your passions, then start analyzing what area to focus on. You cannot excel in agribusiness if you are a jack of all trades. Pick one area and focus on it. If chicken farming is your thing then pursue it entirely.

3. Do Your Research

After clearly defining your area of interest, get information about it. You will require technical knowledge about that crop or livestock you have narrowed down to. You need to know the best practice(s) that will yield best results. Identify the opportunities available in your chosen field. Find out how you can strategically add value to what exists to gain an advantage over your competitors.

4. Planning

Getting into agribusiness without a business plan is like shooting your foot and later wondering why you cannot walk. Have a clear business plan and assess the risks of your business. Agribusiness has money making in it. You therefore have to treat it like any other business. Dry run planning will reduce the possibility of your venture failing.
In addition, consider all the requirements necessary to start off your business. Do you have land? If you don’t, how do you intend to acquire one? How much will it cost? How far is the land from your nearest selling point? What will be your means of transport and how much does it cost?

5. Start with the End in Mind

 Market is the end in business. The primary goal of getting into agribusiness is to make profit. Before you get into any form of agribusiness, find out if there is a market for your product and seek a thorough understanding of that market. This saves you the hassle of having a product and no market for it in the long run.

6. Have Some Savings

 To set up a business you need money. To get into agribusiness will also require you to invest generously before you start reaping anything. My advice is that you stay clear of loans if you can and invest your savings instead. Agribusiness is risky for a starter. You are safer investing your savings than investing money that you do not have, a.k.a loans.

7. Do not Invest all Your Life Savings

 Since you are taking a risk by investing in agribusiness, you should have some money put aside in case things do not work out as planned.

8. Network

 Get to know people. Make friends in the agribusiness sector both online and offline; this way you will have people to share your experience with and to learn from. Join farmer groups on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. Contribute to agricultural discussions online.
Most importantly, cultivate healthy relationships with your suppliers and customers.

9. Commitment

 Agribusiness is just like any other business; it has its fair share of risks. In fact, I would rate it as a high risk business. You need a neat mix of tough skin and passion to survive. Numerous challenges will come your way and you have to be committed to the venture to get back on your feet every so often. Your entire crop might dry up due to a strange disease and there will be little that you can do. Your commitment to that business will drive you to continue despite such painful disappointments.

10. Have Options

 Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is insanity. This is one of my favourite aphorisms because it’s true! If after three years you realize that you have not made any profit in your agribusiness venture, then perhaps it’s time to pitch tent elsewhere. Keep an open mind and be ready to exit when the time comes.

 

Capsicum - Known as Pilipili Hoho in Swahili

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Commonly known in Kenya as Hoho/ Pilipili Hoho, Sweet Pepper is a niche that is yet to be fully exploited. Actually all, nearly all farming activities are heavily underutilized in Kenya with the demand for agricultural products on the rise.
Hoho does well under irrigation and in areas with an average temperature of between 15 degrees and 5 degrees. In the seed bed, capsicum takes approximately 21 days to be ready for transplanting to the farm. Here, capsicum will take approximately 90 days to mature and be ready for harvesting.
Above - a capsicum seed-bed
The recommended spacing for Hoho is 75 cm by 45 cm which means that an acre of land would accommodate roughly 10,000 plants of capsicum.   Each plant would the yield around 10 heads that means that one would be expecting around 100,000 heads in the end of the season. The market prices of capsicum would rage heavily on the size of these heads, period of time and the place where one chooses to sell their products. However, assuming that one is able to produce considerably large heads and sells them in an urban area, each head could fetch between 3-7 shillings each. This means that one can fetch between 300,000 – 700,000 shillings at the end. Colored pepper would fetch much more prices than green ones in the same market.
Above - Capsicum after transplanting from the seed-bed

For one acre, 0.5 kgs of seeds would be enough for planting if one opts to first grow them in a nursery while the same piece of land would require around 1kg of seeds if they are sown directly to the land. After the seedlings have developed four true leaves, they are then transplanted into the farm. When planting in the farm, it is necessary that one uses manure which would be around 10,000 kg per acre – this would mean that each plant gets around 2 handfuls of manure together with double super phosphate fertilizer where around 250 kg would be enough for one acre.  When they grow to around 15 cm, around 100 kg per acres of C.A.N fertilizer should be applied and double amount of the same fertilizer should be applied one month later. The total cost of production should be around 150,000 shillings for the same acre of land. Simple math gives us at least an income of 150,000 shillings from the one acre of capsicum in one season.

Above – mature capsicum plants

Above - Capsicum heads ready for picking.


Just like any other type of farming, capsicum farming in Kenya is faced by some challenges with the main ones being pests and diseases. One of them is early/late bright also called Baridi in Swahili. This one causes the leaves to fold something that hinders photosynthesis thus less production. In green houses, there is little chance of such a disease in capsicum. Some major pests in capsicum common in Kenya are spider mites that attack crops themselves, Thrips that attack flowers, and white flies.