Wheat farming is a practical concept in a country like Nigeria. There is scarcity of all purpose floor in Nigeria, and high percentage are imported goods, hence the high price, which is being affected by the devaluation of the currency. Wheat flour is one of the most widely used commodity in Nigeria. Wheat is a major ingredient in many foods, such as bread, breakfast cereals, pancakes, biscuits, cakes, pasta, pizza. But for a while now, most bakeries in Nigeria have shut down due to high cost of wheat, which has created a high increase in the cost of their pastries, thereby affecting sales, because most of their customers have switched to other means.
Food production business is meant to be lucrative for the producer and be cheap when sold within the country, but importation of raw materials increases the cost of your production, thereby making your products about the same price with imported ones. Therefore, Production will have more value if every items are produced from scratch within the same country.
For wheat plantation, theft will be less of a challenge, because most people can’t relate to the usefulness, until it has been processed. So it can be grown in rural areas even far from where you reside.
It takes about 3 to 4 months to grow and harvest wheat. Most African countries have amazing climate condition for farming almost all types of foods. Wheat plant will thrive well in Nigerian climate and fertile soil.
The harvesting= process can be done manually, likewise the milling process, just like in the old times. There are different equipment available on the internet, or that be constructed locally to grind and separate the wheats. If you can’t afford automatic flour mills and other farming equipment at the moment, you can afford them later as you grow in the business.
I did some research from some farmers to understand the yield= by size of land. I won’t go into the farming process, because this can be learnt from other sources, but I’ll explain the yield and cost.
The expected average yield for an acre of land is 50 to 60 bushels. ( For wheat, 1 bushel basket is equivalent to 60 pounds) 1 bushel of wheat will produce about 42 pounds of white floor. The bran can be sold to poultries as feeds, which is in high demand in Nigeria. It can also be used in your personal poultry. If you choose to make whole wheat flour, the yield will be more than 42 pounds per bushel.
So, to produce fine floor from 50 bushels of wheat, it will be:
50 bushels x 42 pounds = 2,100 lbs (951.3 Kg) fine floor
For whole wheat floor
50 bushels x 60 pounds = 3,000 lbs (1,359)kg whole wheat floor.
So fine floor from one Acre of land is 951.3kg
Whole wheat flour from one Acre of land is 1,359 kg.
Plots are commonly used when buying land in Nigeria
A plot of land in Nigeria is 50 x 100 ft/ 15.2 x30.5m/ 463.6sqm plot size
An acre is 4,046sqm which is 8.7 plots of land.
For a plots of land measuring 60ft x 120ft /18.22m x 36.576m/ 669.79 sqm
6 plots of this will make an acre.
Therefore, for 1 plot of 60 x 120ft plot, the quantity of fine flour, will be the yield of fine floor we derived from 1 acre earlier 951.3KG/ 6 = 158. Multiply this by the cost of fine flour or whole wheat flour per kg.
