Tomato Farming Business Plan in Nigeria

Tomato Farming Business Plan in Nigeria

Our sample tomato farming business plan in Nigeria can be used to access bank loans, proposal writing and grant applications. This business plan was complied after a proper feasibility study on tomato in Nigeria was carried out. Furthermore,this article will be answer the following questions for you in tomatoes production in Nigeria:

Also Read: Tomato Paste Production Business Plan in Nigeria

Also Read: Cabbage Farming in Nigeria

• Commercial tomato farming in Nigeria
• Tomatoes planting season in Nigeria

To get your own tomato farming business plan in Nigeria, pay N10,000 to:

BANK NAME: FIRST BANK PLC

ACCOUNT NAME: CHIBUZOR TOCHI ONYEMENAM

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 3066880122

After payment, text your full name, email address and title (e.g. tomato farming business plan pdf) to 07033378184. Your business plan will be sent to your email within 15 minutes.

Tomato is one of the most consumed vegetables in the world, it is found in almost all of our daily meal. Tomato could be consumed fresh or cooked, sliced, grinded or whole, depending on individual preferences of what you want to prepare. Wikipedia states that the origin of tomato originates from central and south America. The root word for this vegetable is tomatl from the Aztecs then this gave rise to the word tomate (Spanish) then the English word was originated called tomato. Mexicans began using it as food and this act spread throughout the whole world by the means of colonization.

Tomato has a very large market both locally and internationally for export. Tomato could be planted anywhere as long as the soil was properly prepared and the appropriate temperature. It could be planted behind the house in a container/small piece of land for personal use or on a large piece of land for wholesale.

• HEALTH BENEFITS OF TOMATOES
  • Tomato helps to maintain hair texture and quality
  • Tomato makes the skin glow
  • Tomato helps in keeping the blood pressure stabilized
  • It keeps the kidney in shape
  • For good eyes and stable blood sugar
  • It is a great antioxidant because of its redness
  • Helps to improve bone quality.
•  BREEDS OF TOMATOES
• • Pear tomatoes
  • Plum tomatoes
  • Tom berries Tomatoes
  • Slicing or Globe tomatoes
  • Beefsteak tomatoes
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Grapes Tomatoes
  • Campari tomatoes
  • Oxheart tomatoes

 RELEVANT STEPS TO TAKE TO START A TOMATO FARM

1. FARMING LOCATION

In choosing a location for the farm there are a few things that you need to consider

• You must be sure this location is readily available to you both day, night I mean anytime you want to work on the farm you can get working.
• This land has to be a rich land with a great source of water this can be a stream, river, a rich well or tap that constantly has water in it because of the nature of this farming.
• There has to be some form of security to ensure the safety of the plant at all stages, this is to protect the vegetables from stray animal and unauthorized humans that will mean to do the farm harm.
• Ensure the land is rich in organic matter if not then you are to introduce organic matter into this land before planting commence.
• pH value of the soil should be between 6-7 pH value, the test kit could be gotten in the market.
• If for any reason the acidity of the soil is too high you can introduce lime of appropriate quantity and quality.
• The farm has to be accessible for easy transportation of vegetable after harvest.
• The farm cannot be too far from the far from the market to ensure the quality of tomatoes that gets to the farm after harvesting.

 2. Choice of tomatoes

It is also import to note at this point that to get the best yield and great market you must pick the right breed of tomatoes. Above are listed the various breeds that can be grown in Nigeria. A lot of times we need to know the market and ne sure that the breed that we are growing are being sold in the market nearest to you. The Roma tomato is commonly grown in Nigeria which is plum in shape.

3. Get started by planting

The best practice in planting of tomatoes is first planting in a nursery before transplanting to the main farm. This is done because of the tender nature of the vegetable within the first few weeks of planting.

Prepare your nursery bed for about 5-6 weeks and cover the nursery bed with polyethylene sheet to prevent the growth of weeds, nematodes, pests, fungus and bacteria. While waiting you could apply fertilizer and organic matter to ensure the growth is healthy.

Most planting is done around the month of March and April just at the start of the raining season. There is dry season farming for tomato but it has to be done with proper irrigation with constant water to keep the land always moist to ensure for a great harvest.

To plant your seeds: put the tomatoes seed on the soil and ensure it goes into the soil about a quarter inch then cover with adequate soil and apply a little pressure to ensure it is well covered then cover with dry grass to avoid the loss of moisture with the first week after planting. After a week you will need to remove the grace allow for proper growth of the plant. Allow it to then grow freely for the next 5 weeks before transplanting to the field.

4. Transplanting process

As soon as the five weeks elapses then your tomatoes is strong and matured enough to be moved to the farm. The process of uprooting the tomatoes from garden or nursery has to be done with utmost care because of the tenderness of the tomato plant; any break by the stem or the root will result in a dead plant and this will ultimately result in low final yield or harvest. Note that as soon as you uproot them from the garden you have less than 24hours to replant them to avoid the plants from dehydrating as the tomato plant needs lot of water to survive.

SETPS:

• After uprooting gently the tomato from the garden.
• Transport the same day to the farm so it’s advisable to do that in the early hours of the day
• Open the ground with a piece of wood the hole should be large enough to hold the plant.
• Ensure the ground is moist before placing the plant in.
• Cover with loose soil. Don’t press too hard you may break the root.
• Irrigate the far constantly to ensure that the plant is rehydrated to avoid death.

Staking, training and pruning

After transplanting the major work comes in the staking, training and pruning because that is what tell how much yield you are able to take to the market. The tomato beddings can look terrible and diseases prone so you have to ensure that you take proper care of these beddings. Because of how fragile these plants are you have to care for it, watch it and support it to get the best outcome. Support in this sense means to lift the stems with stakes, cages or trellis and train (tie them to grow on) them to grow on it while primping and pruning takes place. This lifts the entire stem off the ground there by making the fruits not to drag on the floor; this increases the yield and prevents diseases and rot, it makes it presentable.

There are two terms that you need to be familiar with when purchasing seedlings determinate or indeterminate

Determinate means that the crop will grow to a certain genetically predefined size and then halts while indeterminate means it will grow indefinitely as long as every condition is right and it is not halted by any external factor.

Staking
when staking it is highly dependent on the specie of tomato you are cultivating

The Wire Tomato Cages – this is in the shape of a downward-tapering cylinder: this is made from metal and is usually for bushy and small determinate species and will quickly become overwhelmed by indeterminate species.

Stakes – this is usually a 1inch by 1inch stick that is being hit into the ground beside the tomato plant and the stem of the plant is being trained by tying to the stake so it can grow in that line following the stake upward. This also is meant for determinate species.

Trellises – this is a row or group of stake that is being pounded into the floor along  the center of the tomato bed and it run down horizontals length of twos between them. This is more effective for larger species which will be a 2 inch by 2 inch by 7 feet stake with a space of 5- 8 feet. This spacing gives the tomatoes much space to spread and properly fruit till harvesting.

Process of Pruning and Training
Training tomatoes is as simple and straight forward. Just after the transplant you will need to tie the stem of the tomato plant to a stake to support it as every 6 or 8 inches, these stems are soft and fragile so you have to very tender in the tying so as to avoid damaging the stems

The process of pruning is cutting branches that are sticking out below the point of tie. Training and pruning always goes together because you are teaching and directing the tomato plant which way to grow through.

5. Irrigate Your Tomato Farm

If it’s not raining season then you must ensure your farm is constantly irrigated and moist to get the best yield but in doing this you must also ensure you don’t put too much water, this will be possible when you know the kind of soil that you farm is on.

6. Weed control and fertilization

About 5 weeks after transplanting it is advisable to weed the farm to ensure the plant flourishes, there are several methods of weeding.

• Manual weeding method
• Chemical weed control method
• Mechanical weeding method

These three are good but can be used depending on personal preference and the size of the farm land.

7. Pest control and tomato disease

Weed control is one major thing to deal with but what you need to give serious consideration are the diseases and pests that plague this plant. A few months back there was a nationwide scarcity of tomatoes because of a tomato disease so this is something every tomato farmer wants to give a real thought. Here are a few of the major pest and diseases that affect this plant:

• Plusia looper
• Aphids
• Leaf miner/potato tuber moth\Bacterial wilt
• Red spider mite
• Erinose mite
• Bacterial canker
• Nematodes
• Fusarium wilt
• Late blight
• Thrips
• Cutworm
• Rust mite

Process of pest and disease control:

• Not as fun as you would want to but you need to practice crop rotation from time to time.
• Use trusted chemicals to battle these
• When you encounter any of these and you have any affected plants ensure they are totally destroyed to avoid transference.
• If you visit an affected farm don’t just come straight to yours. Go through proper sanitation process.
• Also ensure that your drainages are properly channeled.

8. Harvest time

From the time of planting to harvesting takes about 3months which is about 12weeks at this point if your timing is right you should start seeing the greenish tomatoes change to red, then you should start picking out the red ones. You should also consider going to the market to get contact of people that will patronize your farm.

9. Storage

 If you’re not moving the commodity to the market after the harvest then you need to properly store them because of the perishable state of a tomato. So after picking up the tomatoes from the farm you ensure they don’t get wet and you store them in wooding boxes or crates, baskets or cartons. Ensure they are stored in a temperature of about 12°C and between 80% – 90% humidity.

10. Marketing and sales

There is need for proper marketing before you get to the harvesting stage so that you don’t lose you harvest to rot. Go and meet you suppliers and make sure they are on board with buying the harvest. You could make contact with big tomato paste dealers to come and buy your tomato at whole sale price. This saves you from having to dispose of the goods in bits.

Greenhouse

One of the benefits of using a greenhouse that is beside protecting your tomato from insects, bird and other animals looking to taste of the reddish lump it help you grow this tomato in a controlled atmosphere. You can control the temperature, humidity and watering.

One challenge you may face is that for large scale farming you may need more than a few green house on the piece of land.

In conclusion, think about it. Have you stayed one week without consuming tomato or it’s by product?

If not then imagine the whole country’s need for this as a part of our daily lives, so you cannot go wrong in investing in a tomato farm especially because of the demand and the number of Nigerians that consumes this vegetable.

Get your tomato farming business plan in Nigeria today. To order the business plan, pay N10, 000 to:

BANK NAME: GUARANTY TRUST BANK (GTB)

ACCOUNT NAME:  CHIBUZOR TOCHI ONYEMENAM

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 0044056891

OR

BANK NAME: FIRST BANK PLC

ACCOUNT NAME:  CHIBUZOR TOCHI ONYEMENAM

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 3066880122

After payment, send your full name, email address and topic (e.g.  project proposal on tomato production) to 07033378184. Your business plan will be sent to your email within 15 minutes.

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