By Fatima Muraina

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Starting Capital

In any farming business, whether you are starting a small-scale or large scale farming you must have money in hand to enable tackle any financial need that may arise on the way.

 Plan yourself very well before you start looking for land.

Get Appropriate Farmland

 Bear in mind that the land should have the right kind of soil for banana cultivation. select a fertile land for your banana plantation. It is the fertility of the land that will determine the kind of yield you will get from your farm.

Soil Check

It is advisable that the land should undergo soil tests before using it for commercial banana farming.Note, calcareous soil, saline, and sandy soil are not good for a banana plantation.

Prepare The Land For Farming

Clear the land, prepare it and keep it ready for cultivation. Try as much as possible to remove the weeds by manual weeding process or bush clearing as the case may be. Level the land after bush clearing. You can use digger for manual digging for a small scale farming that is beginning from a small farmyard.

Cultivation

Banana is a perennial type of plant that lives and produces fruits for succeeding generations say two years and above. Suckers are used for initial planting.

 Sucker Treatment

Banana suckers should be well-trimmed and treated before putting in the soil. It is advisable to treat suckers so as to get rid of pests and diseases that attack suckers at the root zone,

Planting Spacing and Pattern

Banana plant varieties differ in sizes they need to be spaced out according to their sizes while planting. Single sucker plants are planted at the center hole in an upright pattern permitting a 5cm pseudo stem above the soil. When the sucker is successfully placed in the pit, you have to cover it will the soil top and press the soil very well around the sucker to avoid leaving a hollow air space. Standard bananas are bigger than the dwarf banana; therefore the spacing pattern should be entirely different from each other.

Plant Management

      Managing plants is essential because it has to be nurtured by making sure it has the available nutrients needed and not disturbed by weeds and pests. Banana plant management involves all the processes of preventing and treating any kind of banana pests and diseases as well as weed control. This helps in the proper growth and development of the plant into maturity without any defect. It also suppresses weed growth, pest attacks and helps in yield improvement.

 Harvesting

     Bananas are picked unripe when the fruit is still greenish in color and exported or marketed this way.

Banana farming does not require much capital or much labor. Banana suckers purchased at the beginning of a farming session can last for 2 decades. This makes it one of the best farming businesses that can give you much profit.