It no longer news that times are hard economically, especially, with prices of food stuff gone beyond reach of ordinary people.
Hence, it means that one has to have multiple stream of income to fulfil his or her financial obligations.
However, the fresh news is that there is short and long time solutions to curb the food inflation, especially, through darling.
In the farming value chain lies tomatoes and pepper farming, taking into consideration the current high price of these these crops.
Within your compound’s backyard, you can not only start plantation of your own vegetables, but can also become dealer in sales of tomatoes and pepper.
Apart from subsistence farming in tomatoes and pepper, you can become dealer in sales of tomatoes and pepper amidst scarce and unaffordable vegetable and make extra money from it.
As both tomatoes and pepper are mostly needed in home cooking, eatery or in hospitality sector, embarking on planting will be a big revenue-yielding venture. It will help solve the problem of scarcity of these food Items.
In a chat with LEADERSHIP Weekend, Dr Innocent Ihennacho Ogbonna, explained that, planting tomatoes and pepper have different ways because pepper seeds will require hot and dry soil to start germination. While it will require hot sun for the stem but wet soil for tomatoes and dry weather for tomatoes.
Ogbonna, who is also a lecturer in Lagos higher institution said: “For a beginner who is just coming into this type of farming, he/she should take note of the ways and manner to handle them. Pepper plants require full sun — a minimum of six hours of direct sunlight daily, well drained soil.
Tomatoes and pepper can be grown in the dry season, precisely, between October and February but with the current climate change, it can be grown any time as long as there is maximum protection from too much rain fall.
Tomato does not tolerate much rainfall, but one can wet the ground either by irrigation or applying little water to the roots while pepper tolerate much water or rainfall for maximum maturity.
It takes about 60 to 150 days (three to five months) for peppers to grow from seed to maturity and this depends on the type.
One can use large land for commercial purposes but you can use your backyard either by direct planting to the soil or in a make-shift bed, which can be buckets or bags filled with sand.
Startup Capital/Income
By investing N10,000 for seeds or seedling transplants, one can earn N300, 000 when harvested.
It may not require employing extra hand for those using their compound while those embarking on commercial purposes may need extra hands for weeding and for harvesting of the crops.
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