Maize,is one of the most consumed cereals across Africa. It is consumed by most people with no restrictions on gender, age, country or economic status. Whether they know it or not.

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Most Africans tend to consume maize mainly as a starchy base in a wide variety of pastes, porridge, grits, and beer.

Maize which is highly nutritious and very rich in vitamins, carbohydrates, minerals, iron and dietary fiber is generally consumed as a snack, either boiled or roasted.

It is also a key ingredient in breakfast meals such as 'cornflakes , goldenmorn and other processed forms of maize'. Also , in animal feed production.

It serves as a good source of income .

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Other important processed maize products such as cornstarch, oil, glue, ethanol e.t.c are highly demanded products in the market.

According to research, Nigeria has produced over 7.2 million metric tons of maize in the last two years, which is quite impressive to me.

HOW TO CULTIVATE MAIZE

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Maize is very simple to cultivate, easy to maintain, far less delicate that Rice, and take less capital too.

Like rice, maize matures very fast, within 2-5 months of planting, the crop is ready for harvest, depending on which stage you want to harvest your crop.

Maize grows in a wider range of soil type than rice, almost every part of Nigeria can grow maize on their soil.

With the use of hybridized Maize and mechanized system of farming, yield of maize can reach up to 10.2 tonnes per hectare, with traditional African type of cultivation, production is 2.1 tonnes per hectare which still isn’t too bad .

Here are simple things you need to put in place to cultivate, harvest, and sell maize in your area this season; and if possible, cultivate and sell in large quantity to make more money.

• Get Spacious Land

Like I said before, maize can be grown in all lands in Nigeria but it performs better in a well drained fertile loamy soil. Look for land that is predominantly loam, if you can lay your hands on forest land, that would be perfect because I’ve personally seen corn perform far better without fertilizer on forest lands.
The reason may be due to the decomposed leaves from the forest trees.

• Clear the land
  This could be achieved using manual laborers or mechanical means, the bottom line is to remove the weeds and keep the soil loose for proper maize seedbed and ensure the preservation of the topsoil .

• Make sure you plant your maize seed as soon as you clear the soil to allow the maize grow ahead of weeds. Delay in planting will expose the hybrids maize to competition with the weeds and that is just bad for business.

• Get Improved Maize Variety

If possible, look for Recommended Varieties of maize to improve your yield.

For Early Season Planting, Look for:-

DMR-LSRY (Downy Mildew & Streak Resistant).

Yellow Open Pollinated Varieties. Western Yellow 1: TZSR-Y-1 (Streak Resistant)

Yellow Hybrids Varieties: 8425-8; 8329-15
White, Open Pollinated Varieties: TZPB (FARZ 27); TZB (FARZ 34); TZSR-W-1;

DMR-LSRW (Downy Mildew & Streak Resistant).

ZPBSR (Streak Resistant); DMR-LSRW (Downy Mildew & Streak Resistant).

White Hybrids: 8321-18; 9022-19; (Striga Resistant).

FOR LATE SEASON PLANTING

Plant early maturing, streak or downy mildew resistant varieties.

Yellow Open Pollinated Varieties: TZESR-Y; DMR-ESRY (Downy Mildew and
Streak Resistant).

White, Open Pollinated Varieties: TZESR-W; DMR-ESRW (Downy Mildew and Streak Resistant)

POPCORN: White Pop: Yellow composite.

Get any of these seed varieties from your State and Institution’s Agric departments or anywhere else you can find them.

Give space of about one feet to one and half feet from and between each plant.
You are advised to plant by March ending to the first week of April, sometimes up to early May, depending on how early the rain started and the intensity.

• Apply Fertilizer and Control The Weeds

You may not need fertilizer if the soil is quite fertile. However, the application of fertilizer will aid the crop to yield more.

• Manual Weeding

Start the first weeding on your maize farm from 15days after planting and not later than 25days or as soon as you begin to notice the growth of weeds in your farm. A second weeding may not be necessary before the second application of fertilizer (if there is need for second application of fertilizer) many farmers don’t apply fertilizer twice.

• Herbicide Application

Apply Atrazine pre-emergence at the rate of 3kg ai/ha on a clean seed bed.

Why maize farming in Nigeria?

Maize, also known as corn, is one of the farm produce that gives an incredible return on investment, as one seed of planted maize could return more than 500 kernels of corn come harvest season.

A little monetary investment in corn farming can therefore yield a sizeable level of income and profit after a little while.

Maize matures very fast!

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Between planting and harvest time, a farmer needs to wait only between 3 or 4 months. Therefore cultivating just 5000 kernels of corn, a farmer can harvest not less than 2.5 million kernels of the same maize in less than 120 days.

What more, maize is a hardy plant, and is one of the few crops that can grow on a vast array of soils and can survive in different climatic conditions.

It needs sunlight to prosper and Nigeria is a country blessed with abundant sunlight; maize can therefore be grown successfully in almost every state of the country.

Maize also forms the basis for the production for most animal feeds in Nigeria. Without it, the livestock farmer will probably be unable to rear his livestock. The production of meat, eggs and dairy products (like milk and yoghurt) would be difficult without maize, which is a hugely important ingredient in animal feed.

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Post reference :

http://blog.farmcrowdy.com/sponsoring-maize-farm/

https://www.google.com.ng/amp/s/www.wealthresult.com/business/how-to-cultivate-hybrid-maize-in-nigeria/amp

https://www.google.com.ng/amp/s/www.africabusinessclassroom.com/maize-farming-nigeria/amp/