Every now then, every website you hit to read and understand how rice is cultivated, you will end up getting the same information, i wonder if they all copied these informations from the same source. Well this article promise to be different, cause i alone, will not be doing the lecturing, i encourage anyone who has experience to contribute in the thread.....
Most farmers in Nigeria will tell you they don't get high yields from their rice farm, but the internet writes, 'In every one hectare of land, you can harvest upto 7 to 12mt of rice' thats about 7000kg to 12000 kg of rice or 140 to 240 bags of rice from one hectare of land. But honestly local farmers don't even get up to 70 bags from one hectare. The big question is why? Here we go..............
There are several species of rice, they all don't grow on the same type of soil and climate conditions, as simple as this post might seem to be, every information here might not be useless, they are worth taken seriously.
As a rice farmer, you should first of all know the best species of rice that will grow well on your soil type, and can survive the climate conditions of your farm location. This is the most important process to undergo before cultivation. To get the best result, i employ farmers to get a professional or professionals in plant and soil surveying and science to carry out the research.

When you get that over with, run a nursery, research shows that, rice grow better with high yields when they are cultivated from nursery beds, this is another process that needs utmost concentration and special attention. To know more about this process, you can check the IRRI website.

Moving on to the next round, whenever i travel to the far north, and see how these local farmers prepare their soil before cultivation, i can't but help to wonder how they can grow in quality and quantity. It is good to prepare the soil atleast for a whole month, this is a different bargain entirely, most local farmers don't like to tread on, it is better to get the best information, visit the IRRI website to know more, ensure the soil is properly loose and brittle enough to store and release enough water to plant. Weed properly and transfer sprouts from nursery to the farm when the land is OK enough to be cultivated on.

Now rice needs water... I can simply put it to you this way, 'Treat your crop with water, same way you will treat your child with oxygen' and see how that goes. NB: ensure you have a never dry source of water for irrigation.

Apply the right pesticides and fertilizers, do not overdose or underdose the plant, employ the right nutritionist on your farm to help administer the quantity for the particular specie you are cultivating.

Four weeks to harvest, ensure that the crops gets proper attention and Double the security, use supplement crops that can wade off birds and rodents, each specie as a different type of supplement crop that shields the crops from pest and other organisms. The IRRI website can give you the best information on that. Scare crows are welcomed but you can bet it won't be good enough. Bells are good too, but mehn that will cost you alot.

Then harvest the grains when the time is right, use the right tools and or machines to harvest. This will go a long way to help prevent loss of grains while harvesting.

As simple as this is, i bet you, most farmers still fall victim of low yields even when they apply all this things, well if that's your case, then i bet you forgot the key word "RIGHTLY"
i'll leave you with these words.
Agriculture can be practiced anywhere, with the right knowledge, but not all crops do well everywhere.