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Original Post Date: 2010-09-14 Time: 21:00:06 Posted By: News Poster
By Martin Mwinga
Namibia, like other Southern African countries, is entering the “hunger season”, a period when resources from the previous harvest are being depleted.
It is also a period when farmers are preparing their land for cultivation of mainly grains such as maize and mahangu, and the “hunger season” may retard the farmers’ work rate when cultivating their land, but remember every new season brings with it new opportunities and challenges, and if all the preparatory work is done well in conjunction with current global market trends, as well as in line with the expected favourable rainfall pattern, you will be rewarded with a bigger harvest.
We believe that most of the experienced farmers (both commercial and small scale) are always guided by their farming history based on records of previous production and rainfall patterns in their regions, but we at First Capital feel we can still add on to that wealth of experience with some more valid tips.
Eight things to remember in crop production
A farmer needs to spend time evaluating the quality of his previous crops and think of possible ways to improve and maximise the harvest in the next season. The following are a few helpful tips a farmer should remember in pursuit of better profitability in crop production:
1. What to produce:
Informed farmers study global events before deciding on which crop to plant in the next planting season. South Africa is projected to plant 30 percent less maize over the coming planting season due to the huge surplus of maize experienced in that country and prevailing lower maize prices.
The rise in the price of wheat over the past few months, compounded by Russia’s decision to stop exporting wheat to other countries, is likely to ensure wheat prices remain high and this will also motivate many farmers in South Africa and globally to allocate thousands of hectares for wheat plantations over the coming planting season.
With little hectares available for production of maize, maize production will fall over the coming year and the maize price is likely to increase due to shortages and as global economic recovery gains momentum.
We at First Capital believe that farmers in Namibia can take advantage of the situation by increasing the number of hectares allocated for the production of maize, so as to benefit from projected maize shortages and the resulting increase in maize prices.
2. Land preparation and soil sampling:
Depending on farm or land use history, the farmer can take some field soil samples for laboratory analysis. The soil sample should be a true representation of all farm plots in order to help the farmer to do proper land use planning.
Soil sample testing can be done at the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry’s laboratory facilities, which at present are under renovation up to the end of the year.
Farmers can alternatively send their soil samples to a private laboratory, which will charge you not less than N$380 and results can be made available to the farmer in less than two weeks.
This will enable a commercial farmer to carry out adequate land preparation like ploughing, harrowing and rolling (in conventional tillage), depending on the level of targeted soil tilth and can also incorporate liming of the soil as per soil analysis recommendations.
In order to maximise on the first soaking rains, dry planting for crops like maize should be done as from mid to late October, since effective rains normally fall from end to early October and this would mean effective utilization of the first rains for seed germination and seedling vegetative growth.
3. Timing of planting dates:
In most parts of the flood-prone areas in Namibia, planting of crops like maize and mahangu should be done as early as September or early October for the wet flood
planes so that the retained or available moisture can sustain early vegetative growth and by the time rains fall in late October the plants would be preparing for tasselling stage, and by end of January, farmers would be enjoying fresh green mealies.
By mid to late February, harvesting would have started and by the time the forecasted floods start in March, farmers would have started seasoning of their cereal crops. For the farmers without access to swampy lands or irrigation, they should target short-season maturing cultivars, which can take around 100 days to mature.
In this case they can prepare their land well before rains and can engage in dry planting at least two weeks before end of October so that when the first soaking rains fall (approximately 30 mm) within the first 10 days, that will be enough to sustain more than 90 percent germination and that can also support seedling growth for the first 3 – 4 weeks.
Wheat farmers in flood-free areas should target their summer crop seeding in such a way that it can reach flowering stage (100-114 days after planting) when temperatures are not more than 25°C, since if it rises to more than 30°C, they will lose more yield to pollen sterility.
In most parts of Namibia, temperatures rise to more than 35°C in September and October, and that is the physiological tolerance limit for wheat growth and yields are drastically reduced, so farmers can use their local temperature ranges record to gauge the best time to seed wheat; but anytime after October can still do.
As stated earlier, seeding of a wide range of vegetables can still be done in summer but the irrigation farmers should now capitalize on rains by altering downwards their irrigation schedules.
Mulching of beds for vegetable crops should continue and farmers should raise their beds. Sowing and planting of vegetables on ridges is encouraged to avoid run-off and damping off of young plants.
Heavy manuring is also encouraged to counter the expected heavy leaching of nutrients which come along with heavy rains.
4. Seed selection:
The need for quality or certified seed should not be over-emphasized for both small and large-scale commercial farmers. By now farmers should have established the source of the quality seed from a renowned breeder, if at all high quality output is to be achieved by the end of the season.
The primary objective of certification is the maintenance of genetic purity in seed.
This gives farmers protection since the breeder would have guaranteed crop cultivar authenticity and quality and a farmer can make a follow-up claim to the breeder if the seed would have failed to perform as per guaranteed quality (as on catalogue).
Farmers are being advised to check on all that information before purchasing some crop seeds.
5. Equipment for tillage:
If conventional and minimum tillage are to be used, the farmer should ensure that all her/his machinery and equipment are in first-class working order and those which may need repairs should be done in time.
Fertiliser applying and seed planting equipment should be well tuned or callibrated basing on rates of work performance targeted. For farmers without draft power, they should also be finalising on hiring of tractors or animals. For draft power, farmers with loose and highly friable soils should start ploughing when the soil is still dry to avoid animal straining when the soil is moist.
6. Three-field rotation methods: Growing only one type of crop, especially a grain such as maize, mahangu, wheat, would deplete the soil and produce increasingly lower yields.
To use the three-field system, a plot of land is divided into three sections. A central crop, either in terms of maximum profit or maximum nutrition, is planted on one section. This is usually a starchy grain, such as maize, wheat, or a cash crop, such as cotton.
At the same time, a secondary crop is planted on a second section. The key here is to pick a crop (legume such as peas or lentils) that will revitalise the soil.
The third section should be left unplanted or allowed to “lie fallow”.
In the next year, you rotate the planting, putting in the central crop on the formally fallow field, the secondary, nutritive crop where the central crop was, and let the field where the secondary crop was grown lie fallow.
This translates to more nutrition or more sales, depending on whether you are growing for table or profit. With this basic system in place, minor changes in plant varieties or fertilisers can then be accurately assessed against previous year’s productions.
7. Seed and fertilizer application rates:
Having full knowledge of the soil analysis results would also enable the farmer to know types and quantities of fertilisers needed for different crops to be grown, as well as seed rates for different crops given the fertility nature of his soil.
This is so because plant spacing of a given crop depends on the level of your soil’s fertility. Even the planting or sowing rates according to the Seed Breeder’s catalogue guidelines is given as a range, for example, for maize, it is normally between 25-30kg/ha.
The same applies to fertilizer application rates, and in this case the less fertile a soil is the more fertiliser is applied.
For dryland maize production, farmers in North Eastern Caprivi would apply more fertiliser than in the northern to central parts, largely because of more rainfall received and the burning effect it will impact on plants if it is too much in low-moisture soil.
8. Crop and cultivar selection:
In Namibia, as we highlighted in the previous week’s edition, rain-fed maize production is most ideal in Caprivi where annual rainfall averages 700 mm. Millet and sorghum, because of their drought-resistance nature, do well in the four northern regions, as well as Kavango and Caprivi.
For irrigation supplementary production, maize grows well in the ‘Maize Triangle’ and this is also being supported by the highly fertile soils in those areas.
For wheat, only irrigation farmers can be able to grow it in winter since they only need to time the critical pollination and seed formation stages to coincide with cool conditions.
For vegetable crops, only seeding of the ‘hot loving’ crops like tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, pumpkins, pepper, lettuce, spinach, etc.
However, for tomatoes, high-quality yields will only be realised under a green-house cultivation largely due to high pests and disease build-up arising from high temperatures coupled with high moisture conditions.
But this would also mean more returns for tomato growers due to product scarcity on market. Onion seeding should be timed so that bulb formation would occur in early winter.
– In order to harness the potential of the agricultural sector in Namibia, a professionally managed agriculture fund (First Capital Agriculture Fund) is ready to actively manage your agriculture portfolio.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 14 September 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201009141190.html?viewall=1