Cucumber farming is a booming agricultural subsector in Nigeria. The demand for cucumbers is high and it shows no signs of decreasing, although different varieties are being bred and cultivated on a large scale.
For years, the Chief Executive, Veggie Concept and Veggie Grow, Ayo Akinfolarin, a vegetable farmer has experimented with various crops. Cucumber farming worked well for years, resulting in good income. After tasting success, Akinfolarin has been promoting the cultivation of cucumbers. His popular seed is the high-yielding Carmen F1 cucumber variety, grown in a greenhouse in four months. Carmen F1 has become popular among farmers for its tolerance. It performs well in greenhouses, giving uniform fruits in size, shape and weight.
Supermarkets and major hotels and other high-end eateries are big consumers of cucumbers. Car-men F1 gives heavy and long fruits which weighed up to half a kilogramme.
As Akinfolarin has had great success cultivating cucumbers under polyhouse conditions, he encourages Nigerians to plant cucumbers in tunnels on farms. Because of equal exposure to the micro ecological conditions in the greenhouse, quantity and quality of the produce is almost uniform in yields and other attributes. In addition to the poly house, he advised them to get drip irrigation equipment.
Source: thenationonlineng.net
Photo source: Dreamstime.com
