Cashing In With Soybeans Farming, Why You Need To Re-Visit It.
Soybean farming has been around for quite some time, in fact as far back as anyone can remember.
having a different perspective about soybean farming with a deliberate intention to cash in will make a lot more difference in your entire agricultural enterprise.
Soybeans cultivation is not new, soybeans is cultivated in virtually all parts of Nigeria, especially in the middle belts and northern parts of Nigeria.
Not only in Nigeria, but also in most parts of the world. Although most people are cultivating or farming it but never regarded soybeans as a money-spinning crop.
In other words, a crop that can provide a good source of livelihood.
soybeans-crop almost ready for harvest
In fact, because of the high demands and importance of the crop (soybeans), a lot of farmers especially those living in the hinterland are abandoning the farming of other crops.
And are now venturing into soybeans farming due to its lucrative nature, and it is fast becoming a cash crop with serious economic value.
And high demands owning to the facts, that it can be cultivated and grown on soils that are just okay and requires fewer fertilizers provided your region and climatic condition are favorable.
As a chicken or livestock farmer the farming or cultivation of soybeans cannot be over-emphasized.
It would serve you a dual purpose, as it would provide you with cash to meet your financial obligations.
Most especially if you farm or cultivate it in commercial or at a mechanized large scale level.
And at the same time provides you with important feed constituents for your livestock.
This article would further convince you of the need or rather the importance of farming soybeans and its numerous benefits.
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Few out of the many benefits of cultivating or farming soybeans:
- Soybeans are not easily destroyed by insects or weevils like other crops such as beans, which makes their storage easy and sustainable.
- Soybeans are used in food and animal feeds production, essentially a good protein supplement and also as a good source of metabolizable energy.
- Virtually all soybeans are processed for their oil. The oil may be refined for cooking and other edible uses, or sold for biodiesel production and other industrial uses.
- Soybeans have provided of recent a source of livelihood for many young people, especially in Nigeria. Where you see them around streets corners or major roads frying soybeans cheese popularly known in the local dialect as wara (tofu).
- Some major or popular foods are produced using soybeans oil i.e cakes, cookies baked bread, etc.
- The cake is also an excellent source of livestock feed, especially for poultry as mentioned earlier.
- These and many other important uses of soybeans farming make it a good crop to cash in.
soybeans milk
Cultivating soybeans successfully
As briefly explained above, soybeans perform well in the Southern and Northern Guinea Savannas of Nigeria.
Where rainfall is more than at least 700mm. However, short-duration varieties can thrive in the much drier Sudan Savannah when sown early. And with an even distribution of rainfall throughout the growing period. The time for planting depends upon temperature and day length.
Soybean is a short-day plant and produces flowers in response to the day becoming shorter.
It can be grown on a wide range of soils with the PH value ranging from 4.5 to 8.5.
For maximum and better yield soybeans should not be planted in sandy or shallow soils to avoid drought stress.
And should not be grown in waterlogged soils such as the ones meant for rice farming or soils with surfaces that can crust. As this will lead to poor seed germination.
Marketing the Products (Cash in)
In the time past farmers usually have the problem of selling their products at a reasonable price commensurate with their efforts i.e the price at which they sell the products is not encouraging after investing huge sums of money and resources.
The good news now is that a lot has changed in the market value of soybeans. Soybeans have high demands both internationally and locally. With more value-added products, the prices are reasonable fear these days in favor of the farmers.
At least as a farmer, you can make substantial gains and profits from the sales of your harvested soybeans.
In the local market here in Nigeria the price of a bag of soybeans can go for as high as N50, 000.00 that makes it highly profitable.
Although the price is to a larger extent depends on the season and time of harvest of the year.
If a farmer invests like N200, 000 in cultivating one and a half hectares of soybeans he can make a profit of over N350, 000 thousand Naira. Profits after tax which make it highly profitable and recommendable to any farmer who really wants to invest in agriculture particularly in crop production.
The most important thing to do and get higher and better yield is to make wider consultations with experienced farmers.
Make research and visit agricultural institutions for good high-yielding varieties of seeds, which would guarantee you profits that would match your inputs or investments.
So that in the long run you would have a course to smile.
