Agriculture43 Comments

The season for Rice Farming in Nigeria is here again. The rain has started in major parts of the country where there is suitable soil for Rice Farming. If you live within areas that has plenty of swampy lands, then you are in for good business this season. I have seen plenty of swamps even in Lagos that I think will be very good for rice production. Why not try it? Investments is about taking chances and grabbing opportunity. Rice farming is one of the viable investment any serious investor must not look down on. This is because of the potential for productivity and profits.

One of the very good thing about rice farming is that it take less that four months between planting and harvesting. Therefore, whatever amount you invested now, you’re sure of your return within the next four months, guaranteeing the possibility for quick loan repayments if you take loan to invest in rice farming.

SEE ALSO: How To Start Hybrid Maize Farming In Nigeria

As part of the government’s efforts to ensure adequate food supply to her citizens, Rice farming is also one of those farm investments government is willing to support by borrowing money and logistics to any farmer who is willing to  embark on it, which is a very great advantage for a would be Rice Farmer.

Rice farming is straight forward and requires not much expertise, anyone can cultivate and harvest rice, irrespective of your experience and background in rice business. Rice is a very high yield crop, one Acre of rice farm is capable of producing over 100 bags of rice. Below are some of the things you need to make it happen –

How To Start Rice Farming With Modern Rice Farming Techniques

Modern Rice Farming Techniques

(a) A very good swampy, less acidic land

(b) High yield verity of rice specie

(c) The right fertilizer and proper application

(d) Good weed control at the proper time

(e) And early planting…

Put these in place and you’re in for a hit in rice business!

Rice is a very fast selling farm produce, you don’t have to wait for months or years before you could sell. It sells so fast that everything could be disposed right at the farm except you want to process or stock it. This is the reason why rice farming is a ‘Get Rich Quick Farming’.

SEE ALSO: How To Start Edible Mushroom Farming In Commercial Quantity

Rice is by far the most consumed food staple in China, Indonesia, Tailand, and Nigeria – a West African country of over 150million people. It can be prepared in various forms like: The popular White Rice and stew,  Jollof Rice, Pounded Rice, etc.  You simply can not doubt the usefulness of rice in most countries around the world. Now, if you are willing to go into it, here are the step by step how to cultivate and harvest your rice produce. Feel free to ask question or add anything you think is missing by making a comment below

1. Select Healthy Seeds

The healthier the seeds, the higher it will produce. Look for the improved verity and do the seed selection, don’t just plant the seeds indiscriminately, discriminate among the seeds and go for the best. Good rice production practice requires that you manually select the seeds. Lack of seed selection is one major reason local farmers produces very little.

If you select the best of rice seeds, your harvest would be well worth the time and energy invested in selecting the seeds. But if you neglect this! Well, good luck for you gamble.

2. Raise the Seedlings in A Nursery

Prepare the seedbed and plant the seed there first to grow in a nursery. Solarize The Soil if you can – Soil solarization simply is the method of heating the soil by covering it with transparent polythene sheet in other to control soil borne diseases. Because, many soil borne pathogens and nematodes attack transplanted rice leaving it with low yield.

SEE ALSO: How To Start Lucrative Pineapple Farming In Commercial Scale

It has also been shown that Rice yield always increases by about 36% by using solarization technique to raise the seedlings. Again, transplanted rice matures to harvest faster than non transplanted. After two to three weeks, your seedling will be ready for transplant.

3. Look For A Swampy Land

Swampy land saves you the capital and stress of irrigation. Although rice can be planted in both upland dry condition and lowland swamp and irrigated, but it has been shown that rice produces more on lowland swamp or irrigated soil. So, go for swampy land. Get the land prepared by clearing and using Tractors to properly till the soil surface in readiness for the actual transplanting of your rice seedling.

4. Manage Weeds And Soil Nutrients

After two months of transplanting, the rice farm would be due for weed control, then it will be time to moderately apply herbicide to kill off the weeds. Some people apply Herbicide twice before harvest. Fertilizer is applied in about a month after the transplant. Use the right type of fertilizer (Organic fertilizer) and apply by spraying within the plant field with the right quantity.

5. Harvest Your Crop

Within the 4months of planting, your crop will be ready for harvest. When matured, the color of the rice will change from green to light brown. Then, you know your crop is ready for harvest.

You’d need to move in and harvest you crop very fast to avoid it being eaten up by pests as so many animals feed on the rice seed. Please you’ll need to learn a lot about the pest control.

Whatever effort and money you put into the farm, be assured that within five months you’ll be smiling to the bank.

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43 Comments

  • Leender December 16, 2013

    Thanks a lot mr darlington, you have no idea how much you have just motivated me with your post on rice farming. I have been getting cold feet since I decided to do it and everyone telling me I could not do it because am a girl made it worse. I wish you could email me to elaborate more on farming knowledge and estimated cost. keep up the good work, you have no idea how much you have impacted me with this post. please reply and you can email me on

    • Darlinton Omeh December 16, 2013

      Nice to hear that you are encouraged by this post. There are MANY articles on this website on different farming, most you guys couldn't see much because you are browsing with phone. I think you need to browse with laptop to be able to see stuffs more.

      • Nonye Anuforo June 19, 2016

        Hi darlington, I’m Nonye and I’d like to rub minds with you concerning this topic, please email me at, thanks

      • Ibe Nwaonyeuku March 1, 2018

        Hi, Darlington. I really applaud you for the great work you are doing here, this will go a long way in changing the financial fortunes of the country.
        I need to know the best Rice seedling for Nigeria.
        Thank you.

        Ibe.
        Port Harcourt

  • Tarun Sachdeva April 20, 2014

    i am willing to invest in rice farming. please contact me. tarun

    • Chukwudi Ogbonna July 23, 2016

      Hello Halima,I notice that you’re already in rice farming business.I’m interested in sourcing for high quality rice paddy from the rice producing states.My organization just installed rice milling machines and will appreciate if you would avail information on prices on 100kg,I’m hoping to hear from you.

  • Okafor Simon July 27, 2014

    How do I contact you?

  • Moyosore February 8, 2016

    Good day, my name is Moyo, i am willing to go into agriculture full time, n i would like to do rice farming. pls can u advise on my many plots of land is advisable to start a rice farm. thanks will await yr response.

    • Abdul February 18, 2016

      As he said you should look for a swampy area. If i may ask which part of the country do you reside? But since you are new into it i think you should start with one or two acre of land. Good luck.

    • Kemi April 15, 2016

      Hi Moyo,

      My name is Kemi. I also want to go into agriculture as that is what i studied in sch but currently working in d financial sec. Please let us rub minds. thanks, awaiting your response

      • Babs Sotty June 12, 2016

        Kemi and Moyo both of you lets rob mind together and start from somewhere.. Am interested in investing in my country now. my email is so we can talk more.

      • Nonye Anuforo June 19, 2016

        Hi kemi, I’m Nonye and I’d like to rub minds with you on this, please email me at

      • Mohammed June 25, 2016

        Hi Kemi and Moyo. I am also interested in rice processing. I already have the machinery for a rice mill. So if we can all get together and see how we can get something started that will be great.contact me on

  • Balikis February 23, 2016

    Pls I want to start a rice farming business how much do I need to start it pls including d land and d machine every things pls

  • jubilee eke March 7, 2016

    YOU’RE SO WONDERFUL DARLINGTON BY THE KNOWLEDGE YOU INPACTED IN ME.I’M GRATEFUL AND WILL TRY THIS METHOD OF RICE PLANTING IN MY AREA PRECISELY AT THE EASTERN PART OF NIGERIA.PLEASE EMAIL ME SO I CAN GET YOUR CONTACT IN CASE I NEED MORE DIRECTIONS.GOD BLESS YOU.

  • nweke March 8, 2016

    Where do i get healthy rice seeds

  • chichi March 14, 2016

    Thank you mr Darlinton for this inciteful post. am interested in rice farming business. i live in port harcourt and i want to know if the has the best soil for rice farming. Please i want to have an idea of how much i can start this business. i mean the least amount i can start with and how many bags in kg it will produce. i also need your mobile phone number. thank you

  • Halima April 28, 2016

    Hello mr.Darlington. I am from kano state and I started rice farming last year feb. I harvested twice. I have 3 acres of farmland. But I haven’t harvested more than 37 bags of rice in both my harvesting. What will be the problem? As you said one acre can give you 100 bags. Thank you.

  • Gbenga May 12, 2016

    Hi Mr Darlington,
    I was just browsing the internet to see information on rice farming that I saw your post, quite informative. I had a brief knowledge of rice farming as a child growing up with my father many years ago, although it was in a very small scale as can be offered by peasant farming. Right now I live in Lagos, I am interested, please can you link me up with an ideal area where (around Ogun state) I can get enough swampy land like 10 acres?

    • Nonye Anuforo June 19, 2016

      Hi, I’m Nonye and I’d like to rub minds with you concerning this topic, please email me at

    • Sophia January 27, 2019

      Hello Mr gbenga , I’m in lagos and want to start rice farming, capital is available can we meet ? Reach me on 08104077753 (text only)

  • Edidiong Okponung May 27, 2016

    Pls i am in Akwa Ibom and i want to go into rice farming.

  • Abdullah June 4, 2016

    mr farmer. thanks alot for your ample highlight base on rice farming. i am technically on such research, i dont know if you can help? regards

  • Halimah June 15, 2016

    Hello Gbenga, u said u have idea on rice farming. I want to start with ofada rice farming buh I would appreciate if you can enlighten me on it. And apart from people eating ofada rice in parties,is there market for it cos I am having a cold feet about this. Thanks

  • Bello June 26, 2016

    Hi, as you said (fertilizer application in one month time after transplanting). What will happen to my crops if I applied the fertilizer one or two weeks after transplanting?

  • Bello June 26, 2016

    secondly, I’m practicing rice farming in Kano, pls, can you help me how to get a high yield seed and where to get it? Thanks.

  • Abdulhafiz Gulma June 26, 2016

    Hello , Thank you for this piece of Information. Where can I get more knowledge about this I have about 5 hectares of swampy land in kebbi but I just don’t know where to start from. thanks

  • wemmy July 9, 2016

    Good day, pls I need someone to link me with were I can get long grain rice paddy for my mill, thks

  • Hernah September 4, 2016

    Thank you Darlington. I am also looking into rice farming, these information shared on here is encouraging .
    I’d like to know if you have some form of support structure for newbies like me. Thank you plenty

  • Evalsamele April 25, 2017

    Great job Boss! Well done. Please can I get a Rice farm business plan from you?

  • Timawus Ishaku September 27, 2017

    Wonderful comments. I am Timawus Ishaku from Adamawa State, Nigeria.
    We have arable land but not capital to start with.

    Please is there anyone who know about any GRANT PROGRAMME goining now in Nigeria so that one can apply.

    Thank you.

    Timawus Ishaku

  • Charles Adesoba October 28, 2017

    Hello Mr Darlinton, I am setting up a 5ton/hr capacity rice milling plant. Pls I need to know where to get the right and healthy seedlings from and I also need an experienced person to manage my rice farm. Thank u so much.

  • adeusi adedeji December 18, 2017

    Hi Darlington, please i would to have your email for further enquiries on these.
    i will appreciate if you can help me becaus rice farming is a business that i am interested in doing.

  • Ibe Nwaonyeuku March 1, 2018

    Good work, you people are doing here. Please advise me, what is the best Rice seedling to plant in Nigeria?

  • Ayoola April 21, 2018

    hi Darlington
    you didn’t mention anything about the cost. Can you please give me the rough estimate.
    Thanks

  • moses Akinola April 29, 2018

    nice write up, pls I want to know you for mentorship on rice farming process,pls kindly email me how to hook up with u and your reachable contact phone number.

    thanks.

  • Mahmud Shittu May 11, 2018

    A good write up, I need a one on one mentorship with you on rice farming, kindly contact me. Thanks

  • Doma Danazumi May 26, 2018

    Your piece on rice farming is a pricise and easy to comprehend write up. For those of us in Abuja area at what month can we start rice nursery and transplant? Also apart from organic fertilizer which other fertilizer can we apply?

  • Gbenga July 27, 2018

    Nice writeup bt thats nt y am writing u, I am into rice planting in jos though as a novice as I was transferred there recently and I have no prior knowledge abt farming, I applied selective herbicide, cranstan to b precise bt it only killed d broad leave weeds wat can I do to get rid of the remaining grass which is more on the farm

  • Bukola January 12, 2019

    Sir thank for this information though I love to go for rice production but for now I don’t have money to land how can you help me sir

  • Atanda March 16, 2019

    in Nigeria we still have a huge deficit to cover I think if we youth can come together in clusters and raise fund we can actually do well. call me Atoa am interested in the whole process if anybody as a space in any group where I can contribute my quarter.

  • Ogunleye Omoniyi May 30, 2019

    Is there anybody in Abuja that is interested in rice farming? Let’s rub minds together. My number is 07054890535 (text only).

  • Is there anybody in Abuja or around it that is interested in rice farming, let’s rub minds together. Text only

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