How To Start A Cacao Farming Business
Cacao farming business is really a lucrative business all over the world, considering the fact that it’s highly beneficial to health and it’s highly demanded in the market and many other nice features related to it. Right here you’re going to see various tips that’ll guide you on how to start a cacao farming business anywhere in the world.
Basic Tips On How To Start A Cacao Farming Business
1.) Farm Location
When choosing a farm location, there are three major Factors which you need to put into consideration which are:
- (a.) You Need To Know Your Crop First Then Select The Farm:
In this case we are talking about planting cacao, so according to research we discovered that calinan is a very good location where you can plant Cacao.
- (b.) So for Cacao Farming Business, below are the best conditions for growing Cacao:
(a.) Elevation: 300 to 1200 meters above sea level.
(b.) Temperature Range: A minimum of 18 degree celsius to a maximum of 30 – 32 degree celsius.
(c.) Water: Rainfall ranges from 1250 to 3000 millimeters per annum.
- (c.) Check For Pests And Diseases In The Location
When scouting for your farm location, make sure you do check for pest and diseases in the surroundings of the farm, because in the future this might result to an infection in your own Cacao farm.
- (d.) Consider The Cost In Procuring/Buying Or Leasing The Farmland You Want To Use For Your Cacao Farming Business
If you don’t have enough funds for the moment, you should consider leasing a farmland, but to be on the safer side, I’ll suggest you save up enough money and buy the land once and for all to avoid land disputes in the future and also considering the fact that cacao farming business is a longer-term business.
- (e.) Check out for the frequency Of Typhoons And Possible Occurrence Of Calamities
It is very important to check for Calamities such as flood, drought, volcano, earthquake and many others, because this could lead to losses in the future, considering the fact that it can destroy the whole of your cacao farming business.
- (f.) Make Sure That Your Farm Is Accessible
Having an access to a good road infrastructure is very good, because it’ll be very easy for you to bring in supplies and equipments and it’ll be easier for you to harvest your cacao and bring it to the market for sale, if the road is very bad, it could lead to alot of losses, because you’ll find it difficult in transporting your goods to the market and the drivers will be charging you a high transportation fee, due to the fact that the road is bad, so always make sure that your farm is highly accessible.
- (g.) Check Out For Supply And Cost Of Labour
Finding more workers who will help you in the management of the cacao farm will cost you money, depending on the location of your cacao farm. So you have to make research on what it’s going to cost to hire labour.
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2.) Soil Analysis:
The second part you have to look into is the kind of soil in the farm. It’s very important to do soil analysis inorder to figure out the fertility and also the pH level of the soil where you want to site your cacao farm. So know the nutrient level of your soil will enable you to access the fertilization requirement in your cacao farm. So this would make you to have an accurate budget whenever it comes to fertilization of your cacao farm. Soil analysis should be done every year to know the actual appreciation or depreciation in the amount of soil nutrients.
The best soil where cacao can survive in is a soil which has loamy sand with 50% sand, 30 – 40% of clay, 10 -20% of silt, deep soil of about 150cm high, a pH ranging from 5.0 to 7.5, cacao can’t survive on an acidic soil.
3.) Farm Planning
Cacao could be grown as a mono-crop or it could be intercrop with other trees such as coconut, banana, durian and langka. So the importance of using the intercrop method is that you can be generating income with the plants you joined to the cacao while you’re waiting for the cacao to develop and start bearing fruits.
Another thing is you should make sure you space the trees very well, so that there won’t be any struggle for nutrients in the farm and productivity will be very high also.
When it comes to planting cacao, it’s recommended that you plant in rows with a 3X3 meters distancing in a great layout. So in this way you’ll be able to plant 1000 cocoa trees per hectare in your cacao.
4.) Source Of Cacao Seedlings
It is best to plant grafted cacao seedlings. You could source your cacao seedlings from your nursery, from trusted suppliers or any good agricultural institute.
5.) Planting The Cacao Seedlings
So now you’re very much ready to plant your cacao seedlings, however there is a right time to plant your cacao seedlings. Planting of cacao is typically done during the rainy seasons.
6.) Irrigation
This is very necessary in a cacao farm, considering the fact that rain doesn’t fall all the time, so incase of the raining season you just make use of the drip irrigation system to irrigate your farm.
7.) Regular Attendance To The Farm
As the farmer in charge, you need to always be present in the farm especially when the important activities such as planting is are going on, inorder to make sure that every activities is executed properly according to the specifications.
8.) Removal Of Dead Or Bad Cacao Trees And Replace With New Seedlings
This is very much important after several weeks of planting your cacao plants, you come to the farm again to check out for the cacao trees which are dead or the ones which are not developing very well and try your best to remove them all and replace them with new seedlings, because if you don’t pull them out, you’ll end up wasting alot of time, money and effort on a cacao tree which is dead or non-productive.
In conclusion, Cacao farming business is really a nice and lucrative business if you’re looking for agricultural businesses to venture into. Just follow all I’ve stated here and you’ll surely be successful in your cacao farming business.
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