How To Start A Groundnut Farming Business

Groundnut farming is one of the lucrative farming business in Nigeria. Aside this crop being in high demand in Nigeria; it is also exported to other countries for more profits. This cash crop is cultivated by many farmers especially during the rainy season, because of its high profitable returns; also because it can be cultivated twice in a year, plus the product supply is low.

Groundnut is from the edible nuts family with lots of health benefits. It is mostly if not mainly cultivated as an oil crop, and a protein or leguminous crop. It can be used industrially for the making of groundnut cake, groundnut oil, peanut butter and many more!


Reasons to cultivate groundnut
1. It is a source of food with other by-products gotten from it

2. Groundnut being a cash crop can be exported to other countries for higher profit and can also be sold in local markets

3. It provides employment for both workers and owners of the farm

4. Groundnut also improves soil fertility suitable for the growth of other crops through nitrogen fixation.


Step by step guide on how to start a groundnut farming

1. Site and Soil Selection

The type of soil to grow them is very important, therefore, for good yield, you need to grow your groundnut is a well-drained soil with a sandy or very loose surface layer.

Another important thing to remember is the soil texture. it must be well drained, light textured and highly rich in calcium with moderate amount of organic matter mixed with it.

Despite the fact that the soil texture is an important factor that cannot be overlooked in groundnut cultivation, the soil pH (potential of Hydrogen) level is also important; it must be an acidic soil with pH of between 6.5 – 7.0.

2. Groundnut Seeds to Plant

There are three types of groundnut seeds you can plant, these are – bunch (Spanish), semi-spreading (Virginia bunch) and spreading (Virginia runner)

You can choose from any of the above groundnut seeds to start your groundnut farming business.

If you don’t have your seed, you can head to the market and get the seeds. The quantity depends on the size of the land. You can roughly check while giving about 30cm space for each seed from each other. Practice on that gauging will lead to perfection of such quantification. Even when you have excess of the seed, you can still boil/roast/fry and eat or better make some oil for your kitchen need. You must not wait for big groundnut oil expeller to make your oil. You can use small manual oil press machine.

3. Tilling the soil

In processing groundnut, we just need to till the land. You can still clear the bushes in your previous yam or potato farm and level the heaps that remained after harvesting them.

4. Planting the Seeds

Planting groundnut can be done in March when you must have allowed about 3-4 rainfall on the land you have tilled for the cultivation. It is advisable to give good space of at least 25cm for each planted seed to aid good yield. At the time of planting groundnut, it might please you to add another crop like guinea corn. If you wish to plant guinea corn, read the step 5 but if you don’t, jump to step 6

5. Adding Guinea Corn

If you want to inter-crop groundnut with guinea corn, you must first spread the guinea corn on the portion you want to plant groundnut so that while opening soil to put the groundnut seed, the sands will be covering the spread guinea corns to avoid birds from eating them up.

6. Weeding & Manure

Weeding and adding manure to groundnut is the same as in potato. But, you have to weed the guinea corn twice since it takes about 5 -6 months for it to mature


7. Harvesting

If planted in the month of March harvesting should be around June/July. It takes only about three months for groundnut to mature.


8. Storage & Sales

After harvesting, you can sell out immediately or dry them well and store them for future sell. You can choose to process it further by making its edible oil which is of high demand. After making the oil, the cake that you pressed the oil out from is another product you can sell or convert for your livestock feed if you are keeping livestock

9. Planting for the Second Time (Groundnut Farming)


I will advise you to plant for the second time which normally kicks off in August to be harvested in December if you live anywhere in swampy areas (I mean where waters sprout out of the soil or where irrigation is possible). This is because harvesting the seconding planting in dry land is a big job. It will make you suffer. So plant the second if you live around such water area. And this is all for groundnut farming procedures; i hope it comes in handy!