PLANNING TOMATO FARMING ON A SPACE OF ONE ACRE.
If you have got money and you want to do serious tomato farming business, just know that the bigger the land space that you want to use, the more the capital you will require for investment.
Planting on one acre will cost between 8.5 to 9 millions as overall capital (including equipment). That means half an acre will cost you about 4.5 millions gross capital. First of all, if you are planning to do tomato farming, make sure that your farm is located near a water body e.g a dam or well, for irrigation purposes.
By investing 8.5 millions on 1 acre of land, you can make between 37 millions to 60 millions financial outcome. A season for tomato farming is 4 months. Let's breakdown the requirements to consider;
1. Renting land (300,000/=) a season.
2. Hiring a tractor for preparing land (250,000/=)
3. Buying seeds. You will need Ansal F1 (250g for 550,000/=) or PADMA (250g for 400,000/=) hybrid seeds. Ansal f1 can give 100 big tomatoes per plant, and PADMA can give up to 200 sightly smaller tomatoes per plant, but Ansal F1 is more marketable due to its big size. 1 acre of land can accommodate about 5000 plants altogether.
4. Mulches. You will need to buy dry grass to cover the land. This will cost you 2 millions.
5. Herbicides. You will need weed master 2 litres (costs 28000/= per litre) and 2,4 D 1 litre (25000/=).
6. Pesticides: You will need Rocket 1 litre (45000/=), Imitrust for termites 1 litre (12,000/=), and Benocap 10 litres each at 40,000/=.
7. Fertilizers: You will need DAP 50kgs (200,000/=) and CAN 50kgs (200,000).
8. Fungicide: You will need Indo FIL 25kgs (500,000/=) each at 24000/=.
9. Back pack sprayers (2) each at 80,000/=.
10. Water pump (2.5 millions), for pumping water from the water body to the farm through a pipe.
Labour: You will pay labourers 200,000/= during planting and 1.5 millions during harvesting and 200,000 during spraying.
An acre will give you an average of 150 boxes of tomatoes. Labourers will harvest each box at Shs 10,000/=, making up the 1.5m.
At the beginning, you will need to prepare a nursery bed of 4 x 4 meters, put some manure, put your seeds and surround it with a sack. Sprinkle water to keep it with moisture. Transplant after 2 weeks.
When planting, plant the seedlings at a spacing of 45cm by 60cms. Dig the planting holes to a depth of 6 inches. If you apply manure, carefully incorporate into the soil before planting. Apply DAP fertilizer at a rate of 80kg per acre. Make sure that you cover your land with mulches at an early stage of your plants' growth. If you are planting on a hilly area, use terraces.
The business is widely profitable if you are using hybrid seeds. The only factor that could be a big challenge is heavy rains with storms which can destroy your farm.
The level of profitability can be determined by the selling prices in the market. However, at most cases, you will sell each tomato at 100/= (farm price).
Contact us for more tomato farming information.
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