How to Start a Cotton Farm

 

Cotton is one commodity that has been in demand for a long time and will also remain in demand for a very long time to come. This is because of the fact that cotton is the only natural material used in the production of fibre materials and other textile materials; and the seed is also needed for the production of cotton oil.

The cotton plant is an annual plant and requires hot weather conditions to grow effectively. Starting a cotton plantation is a business investment that will yield you continuous profits in a long time to come because of the continuous demand of the cotton product. The only issue is that the business is capital and labor intensive (majority of the capital will go into acquiring a piece of land for the farming).

This article will go through the step to step process of how to start a cotton farm; and how to get the cotton produce to the consumers.

Things You Need To Start a Cotton Farm

In order to start and successfully run a cotton farm, you need to have the following:

• Large Expanse of Land-: Starting a cotton farm means you wish to run it in a commercial quantity, so you will need a large expanse of large to start the business. You can actually buy off the land or you can enter a lease agreement with a land owner that will stand a long time.
• Capital-: The cotton business is a bit capital intensive. Apart from the capital needed to acquire a piece of land for the farm, you need to get or lease other farming equipments like a tractor, get fertilizer and pesticides in bulk quantity since the cotton plant is subtle to pest attacks. Finally, you need a means of transportation to get the cotton or cotton seeds from your farm to the buyer’s location, and all these requires enough capital to get it done.

Starting a Cotton Farm – Sample Business Plan Template

1. Check Out the Profitability of Cotton in Your Location-: The first step you need to take towards starting a cotton farming business is to carry out a research on the profitability of you cotton in your location. Profitability has to do with carrying out a research on the demand of cotton. If there is a fast demand of the cotton products, then you have a profitable business. Also, you have to check for the competition in the business. If there are more cotton farmers than the demand requires in your location; then you have to either look for another location with less competition or find a way to break through the competition.

2. Draw Up a Business Plan-: Your business plan will help give you a sense of direction on what your business will look like. You need to put every factor into consideration when writing your business plan, including finances and capital, whether the business will run as a company or just a business name, location of the farm, list of potential buyers and your business goals for the first five years of operation.

3. Acquire a Large Land Space-: As I mentioned on the earlier part of this article, you need a large expanse of land to start cultivating cotton on a commercial quantity. The land should be in a location where there is plenty of sun and void of snow or swampy environment. If you are going to lease the land, the lease time should be for at least 10 years; you wouldn’t want to start looking for a new farm land when you just started your present farm.

4. Source for Good Seeds-: The quality of the cotton seed you plant will determine the quality of cotton product you will get when you harvest. You can source for cotton seed from farmer around; they will be able to provide you with healthy seed for planting.
5. Cultivation-: The cotton plant is kind of sensitive to timing, meaning that the time you plant the cotton seeds matters a lot. The plant will yield poorly if it is planted too early or too late. Find out from other farmers when is the best time to cultivate your cotton seed.

6. Take Care of Pests and Weed-: As the cotton seed start sprouting out buds, you should look out for and take care of pest; especially the cotton weevils. These pests can affect the yield or productivity of the cotton plant. You can help control the effect of pests by spraying pesticides regularly on the cotton to help keep them off. Weed is one other thing you need to take care of as the cotton plant matures. You can engage and pay laborers to come do the weeding every other month. Note that you should avoid the use of chemicals to kill weeds because it may end up affecting the cotton plants too.

7. Harvest-: The cotton plant is an annual plant; meaning that it takes one year for the plant to reach maturity from the time it was cultivated. You know that you cotton plant is ready for harvest when the bud blossoms and the white cotton flower is visible. The cotton flower and seed is the commercial part of the cotton plant that you need. You can still employ the services of laborers to help pick the cotton flower for you.

8. Transportation to Buyers or Cotton Gins-: The cotton flower should be sold to cotton farmers soon affect it has been harvested to avoid an attack of cotton boil. That is the reason why you should research and make sure that there is a ready market for your product even before you start cultivation. After you are done with the harvesting, you should spread the word to your potential buyers that your cotton flower ready for sale. One way to get more buyers is to offer them free transportation of the cotton flower from your farm to any location of their choice and also giving them the option to pay on delivery.

How to Start a Bamboo Farm

 

The agric sector is one of the sectors that can boast to be one of the major contributors to the economy of many nations of the world. There are loads of profitable business opportunities in the agric sector and one of them is starting a bamboo farm. So if you are interested in the agric sector and you live around an area that supports the growth of bamboos, then you should consider starting your own bamboo farm.

Bamboo has a lot of economic benefits and that is why it is a brisk business to start a bamboo farms. Because of its strength and resilience, bamboos are utilized as a building material (scaffolding, roofing, flooring et al) in the construction industry, it can be used to make furniture, it is used for decorations, bamboos are used as writing surface, bamboo fiber are used to make high quality paper, bamboo are used to produce musical instruments and it is also used to construct weapons.
In some part of Asia it is a food source for both human and animals (animal diet), the leaves are used as wrappers for steamed dumpling, bamboos are also used as a cooking utensils in some rural areas, bamboos are used for the manufacturing of chopsticks used predominantly in Asia, they are used as medicine for the treatment of infectious diseases, some people even use it for the treatment of impotence, infertility, and menstrual pains.

The truth is that if you can successfully secure a vast land in an area that supports the growth of bamboos to start your own bamboo farm, then you will be in for a money spinner simply because a bamboo farm can last for many years. Let us quickly go through the 7 surefire tips to follow to be able to start your own bamboo farm from the scratch;

Starting a Bamboo Farm – Sample Business Plan Template

1. Raise Your Startup Capital
Now that you have decided to go into bamboo farming, then you should look towards raising the capital required to acquire your farm land, money required to prepare the land, money required to purchase bamboo seedlings and money required to hire laborers to help you with the maintenance of your farm and also for harvesting your bamboos when they are ripe for harvest. So ensure that you do your research to be able to get an estimate of the expenditure required to start and run a bamboo farm.
2. Acquire Farm Lands That Supports the Growth of Bamboo
If you have been able to successfully raise your startup capital for your bamboo farm, then the next step is to look for vast farm land that supports the growth of bamboos to purchase. It could be in a swampy region or any other region around you that can aid the growth of bamboos. The good thing about farm land is that it is very cheap and you can either rent it or purchase it out rightly.
3. Prepare Your Land for the Cultivation of Bamboos
After you must have successfully acquired the land to be used for your bamboo farm, then the next thing that is expected of you to do is to prepare the land before planting your bamboo seedlings. Bamboos are known to grow conveniently in slightly acidic soil. In case the soil composition of the land you obtain for your bamboo farm does not confirm, you can apply lime to adjust the PH level of the soil to a degree that will be suitable for the growth of your bamboos.
4. Source of Bamboo Seedlings
In planning to start your bamboo farm, you must put into consideration how to secure bamboo seedlings. In case you don’t have any idea of how to source for bamboo seedlings, you can visit the ministry of agriculture in your country to make enquiries. As a matter of fact, the ministry of agriculture in your country will be able to direct you to institutions that you can purchase your bamboo seedlings from. If you are getting your seedlings from a government agency, you are likely going to get them on a discount rate. When sourcing for bamboo seedlings, ensure that you source for a variety that suits the climatic and soil condition of where your farm is located.
5. Develop Maintenance Strategy for Your Bamboo Plantation
Much more than planting your bamboo seedlings, you would need to put in place maintenance strategy for your bamboo farm, you need to plan how to water your bamboos, when to make use of insecticides and how and when to weed your bamboo farm. In as much as bamboos can survive without water for a period of time and can resist insect’s attacks and disease, it is always advisable to enforce a maintenance schedule for your bamboo farm if you want to harvest very healthy bamboos.
6. Plan for the Harvest of Your Bamboos
It is important to put in place a good plan for the harvest of your bamboos once they are ripe. As simple as it sounds, if you don’t have a good plan in place for the harvest of your bamboos, you might end up spending more. So, make sure you acquire all the farm implements used for the harvest of bamboos in advance and also hire laborers to assist you with the harvest.
7. Source for Market
The fact that bamboos are used for the manufacturing of a lot of things and also for food and medicine makes it very easy to market. Hence, what you need to do before your bamboos are due for harvest is to visit the industries where bamboos are used as raw materials to inform them of your intention to sell your bamboos at a set date. They may have to come inspect the farm before you guys can agree on a price.
Depending on your agreement with them, they are expected to either take care of the harvest or pay your laborers to help them with the harvest and perhaps transportation. There you have it; the 7 surefire tips need to start your own bamboo farm from the scratch.