Why GrowPro Is A Must For Farmers
I was recently asked to quote for a 3000 hectare farm, based on a successful trial of 100 hectares run over a 9 month period for a farm in Northern Zambia. I was further asked to explain the logistics, cost of inputs and application benefits as the farming benefits were already evident.
For 20 years this particular farm has been using 500kg of chemical fertilizer per hectare, so they were using 1500 tons per crop cycle. That equates to 30,000 x 50kg bags of chemical fertilizer, using 10 ton lorries that would mean around 166 trucks to deliver all of the product. That’s before taking into account that up to 50% of these chemicals will be blown or washed away, causing ecological problems along the way.
I pointed out to the client that Wellcrop’s GrowPro is not affected by heavy rains and there is no need to reapply after heavy rainfall, as our microbes colonize and stick to the root systems, meaning you get 100% usage.
Back to the chemical fertilizer, with the amount they were using, the product needed to be offloaded by a team of 8 workers doing 2 trucks per day, moving the product into a large storage warehouse. Due to storage capacity each delivery had to be time critical as it was a staged delivery schedule, which is not easy in Zambia for several reasons including infrastructure.
When the time came to apply the chemical fertilizer, groups were assembled with the aim of applying to 25 hectares per day, with six groups of five workers. The fertilizer was taken to the field in the 250 x 50kg. Left on the track where applying workers could refill their containers, the workers bent over and applied to the ground.
In stark contrast, using GrowPro this farm would only need 15,000kg (15tons) equating to 3,000 x 5kg boxes with no wastage. This amount of product fits on to just 2 x 10 ton trucks and could be unloaded and stored in a much smaller space in just one day.
In terms of application, this farm would use its water bowser to store 1,250 litres of water, allowing their workers to fill each of their 20 litre backpacks, with just 2.5 backpacks being required to apply to 1 hectare of land, all with very little bending involved in application due to the spray wands used. All in all, a much easier, efficient and cost effective process to apply GrowPro compared to the way they are currently applying chemical fertilizer.
To get a greater idea of just how big of an impact GrowPro can have, I calculated a cost comparison for the farm:
Procurement
Chemical Fertilizers x 1500 tons average cost: $975,000
GrowPro x 3,000 5kg units (15 tons): $450,000
GrowPro offering a saving of $525,000!
Logistics
Chemical Fertilizer Trucks Required: 166
GrowPro Trucks Required: 2
When you look at the numbers involved, along with the obvious benefits, it’s not difficult to see why GrowPro is having such a massive impact on the agricultural market in Zambia.
