By: Rida Ahmed Usmani

Project Lifecycle
In order to explore a project’s lifecycle, I picked up the project of Tomato Cultivation that was
undertaken recently by a friend and I was able to observe it closely. This project was done on
one acre of land to test the viability of a sustainable business in future. The following are the
project’s phases, its activities and efforts in terms of percentages of cost and man hours.

PROJECT EFFORT EFFORT (%

PROJECT ACTIVITIES
PHASES (% Cost) Man Hours)
1) Let the soil be well drained
2) Plough the soil 4-5 times
Prepare Land 3) Add bulky amount of manure 15 10
4) Add 100-120 kgs of nitrogen and 50-60 kgs
of phosphorus and 50-60 kgs of potash/ha
1) Spread the irrigation network over the
field
Irrigate 20 20
2) Control the water supply to be slow and
steady given at regular intervals
1) Sow seeds
Sow seeds in 2) Irrigate at regular intervals
30 30
Field 3) Spray 0.3 per cent (3g /l) water-soluble
fertilizer 12 and 20 days after sowing
1) Spray insecticides 7-10 days after
germination. Malathion or Sumithion can be
sprayed by mixing 10 mls chemical with 10
ltrs of water.
2) In case of Alternaria Blight, drench the
Manage soil with a mixture of Bavistin.
15 20
Pest/Diseases 3) In case of damping off, avoid over-
watering and drench the beds with
Capton or Thiram
4) In case of Bacterial Wilt, seed treatment
with Streptocycline for 90 minutes is
suggested
1) Collect Tomato fruits before they start
ripening or the seeds become hard.
Harvest 2) Cutting with small pruning shears or sharp 20 20
knives. Leave the fleshy calyx and a short
piece of stalk attached to the fruit.
Graph

EFFORT ( % of Cost)
35
30
25
20
15
10
EFFORT ( % of Cost)
5
0

EFFORT (% Man Hours)

35
30
25
20
15
10
EFFORT (% Man Hours)
5
0
Analysis

Due to lack of experience and limited budget, new and improved methods for growing tomatoes
weren’t deployed resulting in not only the delay of some activities but also the fruiting process.

Comparison with Industry Standard

Tomato is largely produced in Pakistan and generally phases similar to ours are adopted in the
industry. Larger players however cultivate seedlings in the nursery first and then transplant them
into the fields. This major difference not only saves time for them but also mitigates risk. Time is
saved as the initial phase overlap with the phase seedlings are cultivated and risk is mitigated as
only healthy seedlings are transplanted into the field resulting in a promising growth of tomatoes
as opposed to the phase in our lifecycle where we have sowed the seeds directly in the field
resulting in an uncertainty of the amount of yield. Moreover, other differences exist in the
activities of each phase where different methods and techniques are adopted by larger players for
preparing and irrigating the field as well as managing diseases and pest during the lifecycle of
tomato cultivation; all for higher efficiency and productivity.