How to make more profits from your farm by growing lavender

Let me teach you how to grow lavender, sell it to the right customers at the right price, what these customers need... and the steps you need to take every day to succeed in growing lavender in Kenya right now!

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From the desk of Haron Mogeni,

Horticulturist and Farm manager,

Kiambu Prison farm

Dear hardworking farmer,

Are you searching for an alternative crop that is easy to manage, yields high profit, and is in high demand? You have always grown on your small farm crops like; maize, beans, kale, or potatoes yet the market prices of these crops don’t please you.

Welcome. You’ve landed at the right website. After hours of agonizing and backbreaking research, I have identified the perfect crop that is easy to manage, high in profit and demand.

It is a breakthrough opportunity and the timeliness of your response matters so much. After you complete reading this, you’d be left wondering why your farm is under other crops. In fact, you will lament how you’ve been losing huge profits.

You may be wondering if am qualified to make such a huge promise. Well, I am a graduate of horticulture from Egerton University. Currently a farm manager at Kiambu prison farm.

Therefore, What I’m telling you are not just stories, but things that I have done research on, and have practiced. Not to mention my 10 years experience in the agricultural field.

Farmers in Kenya and everywhere are finding it difficult to earn a living from their farm. This is because of the high costs of production and the stiff competition as they grow what everybody is growing.

Nevertheless, today I want to open your eyes and introduce you to a crop that people rarely consider. A kilo of its produce goes for Kenya shillings 3000/=. If you prefer counting your money in dollars, a kilo of its produce yields you $ 35.

This is the perfect crop for smallholder farms. You don’t need any experience to grow the crop. In fact, if you’ve ever grown any crop, then you are more than qualified to grow lavender.

All you need to know is how, to whom and where to sell this crop. But, don’t worry about that. By the time you finish reading this report, you will have all the skills needed to do just market lavender like a Guru.

Across Europe the demand for herbs is growing— in the UK, for example over the last decade there has been a large increase in people interested in home cookery and experimenting with culinary techniques and different cuisines, which has led to the demand for herbs. The East African Fresh Produce Journal Lavender is known to be one of the famous herbs with the fragrance of its dried flowers and from the oils refined from it. This is typically being use as perfumes, so growing lavender flowers, as a business is truly lucrative. Start up biz hub Question: I like growing herbs in my garden. Which do you recommend? Answer: Lavender Lavender has become increasingly popular as a herb for cooking and industry. The herb produces a perfume so admired that vast fields of lavender plants are grown in England, Provence, Tasmania and morocco to satisfy a worldwide demand for scented soaps, candles, skin lotions, and many products. A few sprigs clustered in a vase can fill an entire room with its romantic fragrance. Swirled in a bathtub, they will even scent the water. Manjala Juluri, ASLA Landscape consultant and designer

 

First thing first: why grow lavender?

Lavender is a worthy crop to grow because of its perennial growing nature. This means its lifespan extends over 1 year. The implication of this is that you will harvest flowers year after year, without replanting it again.

Lavender plants can last for 10-15 years or longer if managed correctly. K M Swanepoel and W G Alberts Department of Agriculture, University of Zululand

Second, lavender can grow over a wide range of altitude between 1000-1700 meters above sea level. The higher the altitude the better as the oil yields tend to increase with altitude. This is because the plant flowers more abundantly in cooler conditions.

Third, you will not worry about pests and diseases, which ravage most crops. However, the plant suffers from phytophora root rot if grown in poorly drained soils, or when overwatered. The plant grows well soils of low fertility.

Lavender ranks high as a sustainable crop because it does not rely on pesticides and fertilizers… ATTRA National sustainable Agriculture Information Service

Fourth, the selling price of lavender products is very high. To find the average prices of a kilo of dried lavender flowers, oil and fragrance, visit online shops like ebay, Amazon and Alibaba.

The prices range from $50-300, which in my opinion are enough to cover the cost of production and leave you with profit.

So, how and where do I start?

Start a nursery. Why do you need to start one? You are likely to face difficulties of getting sufficient planting for your farm. Therefore, you’ll need to multiply what you get.

Another reason for establishing a nursery is to save on costs. An acre requires 15,000-28,000 plants. Now let’s assume one seedling costs $2. That will mean on planting material alone you’ll have to spend $30,000- 56,000.

Establishing a nursery will allow you to save on costs of transport. This is because plant material is bulky in nature. Transporting the material for long distances will be expensive.

One more thing, the cost of planting material constitutes a great percentage of the overall cost of growing lavender. You also want to reduce the cost of planting material and the risk of loss. Thus multiplying your own planting material makes sense.

How to multiply your seedlings

Transplant the planting material you bought into a nursery. Allow it time say 3 months to establish itself, and become vigorous. You will need to take cuttings from the plants.

The best time to take cuttings from lavender is right after they have bloomed. Take cuttings from stems with no flower buds on them. Remove leaves from the bottom half of the cutting and insert it into well draining sterile potting soil or horticultural vermiculite.

Rooting hormone is not necessary. The cuttings should root in about 3 weeks. Transplant rooted cuttings into pots 2-4 inches in diameter. One the plants develop a vigorous root system transplant them to the farm.

Before transplanting the seedling into the farm, contact various restaurants, hotels, as they are the largest consumers of the herb.

Transplanting to the farm

Lavender is not competitive and does not respond well to weed pressure. Prepare the field during dry weather to kill all perennial weeds. You can apply pre-emergent herbicides so that the plants has a head start before weeds.

When planting (lavender agustifolia) or its cultivars, ensure planting material has been propagated vegetatively from cuttings, not started form seed so that you can have true to type plants.

When planting lavender as a crop, spacing depends on the size of the cultivars. Spacing ranges from 2-3 feet within the row and 3-6 feet between rows.

Pruning

Lavender flowers on new growth. Therefore, prune the plants every year after it is established. Pruning should take place when green leaves start to emerge from the base of the plant.

Remove approximately one third of the top. The plant responds well to pruning. Pruning keeps the plant from splitting and becoming too woody.

Harvesting

Harvest the lavender stems in the morning hours when the oils are most concentrated and when approximately 50% of the flower buds have opened. Use a sickle or pruning shears to cut stems as long as possible.

Form bundles of 50-100 stems and bind them with rubber bands. Rubber bands will contract when the stems dry out. Dry the harvested lavender in a cool dark place where there is good air circulation.

Yields of lavender

An acre of true lavender (lavender angustifolia) produces from 150 to 900 kg of dried flowers and about 10 to 20 liters essential oil.

Marketing of lavender

You can market lavender other products in many ways i.e. as dried or fresh flowers, or processed products. Find local buyers like; hotels, marketing agents and companies from chemical and pharmaceutical, as well as food and flavoring industries. Before you start any production, conduct research on the local market of your produce. You can use social networking sites like Linkenld, Facebook, Google plus and other online forum to reach buyers.

International buyers are divided into flavor and fragrance houses, cosmetics and personal health care, aromatherapy and food manufacturers who buy in large quantities.

The major market in the world for essential oils is the United States, followed by Japan and Europe. However, production continues to be concentrated in Europe, with seven of the world’s largest essential oil processing firms.

In the United States, the major users of essential oils are the soft drink companies. Japan accounts for 10 % of the world demand. The Canadian market is dominated by the United States perfume and flavoring industry.

Cumin

Cultivation of this crop in Kenya limited because of lack of information on planting, cultural practices and control of the diseases like alternaria blight that appears in an epidemic form.

India is the leading country in the world in terms of production, consumption and export of cumin.

Though  is an important spice crop with high economic returns, its cultivation has not taken place in areas where it can grow well.

USES AND IMPORTANCE of cumin

It is used in the preparation of a number of medicines; it is a good carminative  for controlling diarrhea and astringent digestive disorders.

It is also used in veterinary medicine, in the manufacture of cosmetics, curry powder, culinary preparations, and spice blends and  beverages.

ENVIRONMENTAL REQUIREMENTS

The plant grows well in cool and dry weather; heavy rains during the growth period damage the plant.

On the other hand warm weather increases the incidence of the disease attaining an epidemic form at flowering and seed formation.

Frost or cool air also affect the flowers negatively-all these factors combined, result to shriveled seeds.

FIELD PREPARATION

A very fine seed bed should be prepared; to achieve a fine seed bed in loamy soil, 3-4 deep plowings should be done followed by harrowing and leveling.

The field should be kept free from water logging by providing suitable draining channels.

VARIETIES OF CUMIN

1. MC 43,

2. RS 1,

3. RZ 19,

4. Gujarat cumin 1.

SEED AND SOWING

The selection of seed, seed treatment, sowing time and method of sowing are the important practices that influence the production of cumin.

About 10-12 kg of healthy treated seed is required for 1 hectare.  The seed is treated with any suitable fungicide like agrosan or cerasan at the rate of 2 grams for every kilogram of seed as a precaution against the seed borne diseases.

The best time to sow cumin seeds in Kenya is from the mid October to the mid November. It has been noticed that early sowing prolongs the vegetative period and increases incidence of cumin blight.

Late sowing in December is preferred to produce high quality seed. The seeds are very small in size, so very careful sowing is required for constant distribution of seed on the farm.

Seed can be broadcasted or dropped in lines by specially designed mechanically operated seed drills.

The recommended spacing between the furrows is 30 cm while between the plants is 10 cm. Space, between the plants is adjusted through thinning operations 15-20 days after sowing.

MANURES AND FERTILIZERS

The addition of 10-15 tones of well decomposed farmyard manure month before sowing the seed improves the tilth of the soil making it desirable for a cumin.

Under rain fed conditions, 20 kg of Nitrogen and 20 kg of phosphorous should be applied as a basal dose. The remaining 20 kg of nitrogen is applied in form of a foliar spray. after  rains commences.

Under irrigated conditions, 30 kg of Phosphorus and 20 kg of potash are applied in the split doses; one after irrigation, the other during the early stage of vegetative growth or as a foliar spray with 2% urea.

WEED CONTROL

Weeding should be done in the early stages of the crop growth to reduce competition of weeds with the crop for the soil moisture, nutrients and sunlight.

Weed control can be achieved by hand hoeing after 15-20 days of sowing or spraying of herbicides like isoprotun at the rate of 1 Kg of active ingredient in 800 liters of water as pre-emergence application.

IRRIGATION

Adequate field moisture is necessary for the germination of the seeds. Cumin seeds germinate within 9-10 days after sowing depending on the soil moisture levels.

Irrigate frequently at an interval of 10-15 days taking care no water logging occurs in the field. After flowering, one, light irrigation is given and the crop is left to mature.

HARVESTING AND THRESHING

The crop is ready for harvesting in 90-130 days. Harvesting is generally done early in the morning to avoid shedding of the seeds.

Harvesting done by uprooting the whole plant; the harvested crop is spread out on the threshing floor to dry in the sun for 2 days, after which threshing is done by beating lightly with a stick.

YIELD

5-12 quintals per hectare (500-1200 kg) are produced under good climatic conditions if the crop was without any epidemic diseases and pest damage.

The yield of volatile oil from the mature seed ranges from 2-3% by weight and a strong aromatic greenish oil to an extent of about 10%.

diseases of cumin

Cumin is attacked mainly by fungi which cause two serious diseases;

1. Cumin blight disease
2. Powdery mildew

cumin blight 

The disease is caused by alternaia species and  appears during warm humid weather taking an epidemic form at flowering stage.

The seed is affected to the extent that they can’t mature to the full size where seeds mature,they become shriveled and are easily blown during winnowing.

It has been observed that early sown crop makes is highly susceptible to the disease; producing unmarketable seed.

To control the disease,  a foliar spray of difolan or dithane M45 effectively reduces the disease incidence.

Spray the crop repeatedly with cuman at the rate of 100 ml in 100 liters of water or spray the crop with Bordeaux mixture 1%.

The first spray should be 3 weeks after sowing and subsequent 3 sprays at intervals of a fortnight.

Powdery mildew

This disease is also caused by a fungus in warm humid climate, a white growth of fungus mycelia is visible on the ventral and dorsal surface of the leaves and the stems.

flowers are malformed and covered with white powder and no seeds are formed.

To control the disease, the crop is sprayed with fine sulfur at the rate of 20kg/ha in two doses; the 1st with the onset of flowering and the second after 10 days.

After 2 or 3 days spray cosan at the rate of 100g in 100 liters of water at fortnightly intervals from onset of flowering.