Practical farming knowledge for Africa
Guides
16 practical guides written for farmers across Africa, from smallholder plots to commercial operations. Each one explains the method and the numbers; confirm the details for your farm with your local extension officer, agronomist or vet.
Planting, feeding and protecting the crops Africa grows: maize, sorghum, cassava, legumes, wheat and more.
The right number of plants per hectare depends on how much water your field can supply. Here is how to choose a target stand for maize and other crops, and turn it into seeds per metre and kilograms of seed.
Counting cobs, rows and kernels in a few measured strips gives a useful yield estimate weeks before the combine or the harvest team arrives. Here is the method, the sums and its limits.
Crops develop according to the heat they accumulate, not the number of days since planting. Growing degree days turn daily temperatures into a heat count you can use to compare hybrids, plan planting dates and predict flowering.
A sprayer that puts out more or less water than you think puts out the wrong dose of every product. Here is how to measure your real spray volume per hectare and work out how much product goes into each tank.
Cattle, small stock and poultry: grazing, health, breeding and feeding.
Overstocking is the fastest way to damage veld and lose animals in a drought. This guide explains large stock units, grazing capacity, how to work out how many animals your land can carry and how to adjust through the season.
Drought feeding is expensive and the decisions that matter most come before the grass runs out. Here is how to prioritise animals, work out roughage and supplement needs, and avoid the common and costly mistakes.
Ticks cost cattle farmers through blood loss, damaged hides and deadly diseases such as redwater, gallsickness, heartwater and East Coast fever. This guide covers the main ticks, how the diseases work and how to build a control plan that keeps working.
Chickens cannot sweat, and a single very hot afternoon can kill birds and cut egg production for weeks. Here is how to recognise heat stress and keep broilers, layers and village chickens cool with housing, water and management.
Soil health, sampling, conservation agriculture and making every drop of water count.
A soil test tells you what the soil can supply; your yield target tells you what the crop needs. This guide shows how to turn a nutrient requirement into kilograms of fertiliser product, and how to compare prices fairly.
How much water does your crop actually use this week, and how long should the system run to replace it? This guide explains reference evapotranspiration, crop factors, system efficiency and run times with worked numbers.
A laboratory can only analyse the soil you send it. Here is how to divide your land, how many cores to take, how deep to go and how to handle the sample so the results reflect the whole field.
Minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation can protect soil, save water and cut costs. Here is what each principle means on an African farm, the common stumbling blocks and a practical way to begin.
Records, costs, markets and planning that keep a farm profitable.
If you do not know what it costs you to grow a ton of grain, you cannot know whether a price is good. This guide walks through variable and fixed costs, gross margin, and break-even price and yield with a worked example.
Silos, millers, processors and commodity exchanges pay on quality and on paper. Here is how grain grading works, what buyers check, how contracts and price deductions work, and how to prepare so you get the price you expect.
Good records show which fields, crops and animals make money, support loan and insurance applications and satisfy buyers who ask for traceability. Here is what to record, how to keep it simple and how to use it.
Grain lost to insects, mould and rats after harvest is money already spent on seed, fertiliser and labour. This guide covers drying, testing moisture, choosing storage and deciding when storing to sell later pays off.