Despite, the high demand for Aloe vera, its cultivation, and availability in the market is not enough. Aloe vera products demand is increasing day by day but the rate of cultivation is not similar.
In India, Aloe vera farming is getting more popular, so farmers have the opportunities to have aloe vera cultivation.
But practically, most of the farmers don't practice Aloe vera farming, because of their profit interest and lack of awareness towards aloe vera.
To make things simple and clear, let's understand aloe vera farming yield, investment, and profit per acre.
Aloe vera yield per acre
One acre land area(4046 sq meters) is enough for more than 16000 Aloe vera plants.
For per square meter, 4 Aloe vera plants cover the land. So, one-acre of land can help to grow 16000 Aloe vera plants.
After 8 to 10 months, one plant will produce total 4 to 5 kg aloe vera leaves. Then in next three batches plant will produce 2.5 to 3.5 kg aloe vera leaves.
16000 plants in one acre will produce 640 quintals to 750 quintals aloe vera leaves in first year batch. In next two to three batches, total yield would be 400 quintals to 600 quintals.
Configuration of land and plants
To get better growth as well as better profit in Aloe vera farming, the configuration of plants with the land has important value.
The line to line distance
Remember, you can fix line to line distance by standing in a particular direction, otherwise, there will be no difference between plant to plant distance and line to line distance.
So, every line to line distance must be 35 to 40 cm.
In starting, it looks like a huge margin between lines, but later it becomes comfortable as plant starts to grow and expand horizontally.
Plant to plant distance
Every plant to plant distance must be between 28 to 36 cm. This looks like we have the same plant-to-plant distance and line-to-line distance. The reason is simple, the aloe vera plant grow equally in 360 degrees direction.
Investment in Aloe vera farming
You can divide your main investment in plants buying, compost and fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation water, labor, and marketing of yield.
Following is an estimated investment for aloe vera farming in per-acre land-
- Number of plants per acre- 16000
- Cost of plants- $1,000/acre
- Compost and fertilizers- $750/year
- Pesticides- $200/year
- Irrigation water- $200/year
- Labor cost- $800(3 months in a year)
- Marketing- $200
- Transportation- $300
Total investment- $3,450
Profit in Aloe vera farming- One plant produces leaves- 8 to 10
- Total weight of one plant leaves- 4 to 5 kg/year
- Total number of plants- 16000/acre
- Total weight of aloe vera leaves- 60000 kg to 75000 kgs.
The gross value of 1 kg aloe vera leaves in the market- $1.5
The total gross value of one-acre yield- $80,000 to $1,10,000/year
We can calculate the net profit by subtracting the total investment by the total gross value of yield aloe vera leaves.
Total net profit- $75,000 to $1,05,000/year
Why do people get fail or hesitate in Aloe vera farming?
Now, let's understand the reasons for failure and hesitation farmers show towards Aloe vera farming-
Lack of knowledge and proper training
Training before any strong cultivation, keeps the trainee, teach him the practical method of cultivation, using of fertilizers ratio, how to deal bad insects and diseases during mid growth.
Without proper training, even at least 10 days, can disturb the cultivation and growth of the aloe vera plants. Without training people do following mistakes and put them in trouble-
Wrong or indefinite use of fertilizers
Without even testing the pH and TDS of the soil, untrained beginners do the mistake of using over or fewer fertilizers according to their choices. This indefinite use of fertilizers affects the total yield of cultivation.
The difference between using chemical and organic fertilizers is just that organic ones give slow but strong results but chemical ones give faster but sparky results, and people mostly use chemical fertilizers.
Diseases and pesticides
After a time, aloe vera plants start to get black and brown spots in their leaves. This is the after effect or indefinite sunlight. Sometimes, bad insects attack the aloe vera plant leaves and start to destroy their leaves.
To recover such problems, pesticides are important but most unaware farmers use harmful chemical pesticides. Indefinite use of such harmful chemical pesticides can kill necessary good insects. It can vanish the balance of soil elements.
Reasons of hesitation
Besides the failure of aloe vera farming, some farmers hesitate to start aloe vera cultivation. Following are the reasons that are why people hesitate-
No backup throughout the year
At present, farmers don't take risk of having the cultivation of single seasonal(4 months period) crops only. They do mixed cropping.
The reason for not starting aloe vera farming is the growing period of aloe vera leaves. This period of 8 to 12 months doesn't associate with another backup through the year. In case of any natural disaster, the farmer can't survive because of no backup, either of crop or money.
Lack of local market
In countries like India, where the demand for aloe vera is very high, but there are no particular local markets to sell aloe vera at a reasonable price.
If someone wants to sell his aloe vera crop, then he has to ask the proper buyer with help of a proper marketing strategy. In case of no proper buyer, the whole crop will sell in portions at very low prices. There is no guarantee of how long it will take time to sell the crops. So, this is a certain reason why people hesitate to start an aloe vera farm.
Requirements are qualitative
It is certain that what will be pH, TDS, and the quality of soil for aloe vera farming. Their fertilizers and pesticides using ratio are fixed, certain, and qualitative.
A single mistake with mentioned terms can cause a loss in yield. People don't want to take any extra headache of such serious qualitative involvement for profit.
Transportation and Marketing from own pocket
Because there are no local markets in India to sell aloe vera crops everywhere. So people use transportation methods to sell them in other states. For that, they pay the cost of transportation from their own pockets.
Smart marketing strategies demand a good investment. For even the marketing of aloe vera crop, farmers invest money from their pockets.
Thus, the cost of transportation and marketing decreases the net profit, which doesn't attract people to have it.
Involvement of contract farming
One of the major reasons that don't attract people to aloe vera farming is the atmosphere of contract farming. Those people who don't know about contract farming, have some misconceptions about it. Some are true but some are not.
Suppose, in contract A, the quality and quantity of produced aloe vera are certain. If a farmer doesn't produce the same quality and quantity on their mentioned scale, then the company can reduce the cost of aloe vera. There are no effective laws to handle contract farming cases.
Around 85% of Indian farmers are small farmers. They don't get enough profit every year. In a court case trouble, they don't have enough money to hire an advocate to handle it. In the end, they lose the case and all the possibilities of profit and sometimes the investment too.