Water sounds common but could ruin your dream of making it big in Agriculture. We will highlight various sources of water you can depend on for your Agricultural business. Agricultural activities like crop farming, fishery, animal husbandry and poultry, are in need of regular sources of water. The success of any of these agricultural activities you venture into depends greatly on your access to potable water. This is one factor that should be taken into consideration when selecting the location for your farm land.
How good is the water for farming?
This is one other big question you need to ask yourself when acquiring a land for farming. The water in some areas is highly contaminated. Choosing to farm in such areas, you may have to spend to spend some extra millions of naira on water purification methods such as Reverse Osmosis. The people of the Niger delta region of Nigeria can tell you how important good water is. Their progress in Agriculture has suffered major setbacks due to lack of good water caused by oil spillage in that part of Nigeria. Stated below are major sources of water to consider when acquiring a farm land.
- Rainfall– Depending on what agricultural business you are going into, rainfall could be readily available for you at no cost. The problem connected to this source of water is that it is not available all year round. It is seasonal, hence your business will have to be seasonal and you might be limited in your operation and diversification.
- Stream/River-This also has no cost attached, depending on where your farm is located. However, note that you need to spend some money to acquire mud pump/surface pump and pipes, to pump and convey the water from the source to different areas of the farm. Note that your production may also be affected by this source of water as it is also seasonal and not predictable. As mentioned above, this type of water source may even dry up during dry season.
- Well– Well is a very economical source of water. It is a good one for somebody going into farming with limited fund. Well does not get easily affected by season, though it could be unpredictable as it can also dry up due to global warming. It gets easily contaminated as it is affected directly by environmental factors. Analysis needs to be carried out to be sure it is fit for farming.
- Borehole– Having a borehole on your farm is highly beneficial, though it is more expensive to have one, compared to the other sources stated above. If your farm is located in a good area, the quality of water is not something you need to worry about. The people working on your farm will also have access to good water for personal use, which will in turn boost their performance. Borehole guarantees access to water, all-year-round, for farm use.
Our advice to farmers is to strive to have a borehole on their farmland, where the farm land is far from natural sources of water like Rivers. Even small natural water sources dry up during dry season. So the best bet is to have a borehole to guaranty all-year-round access to good water.
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