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| A farmer calculating inventory on the farm |
FARMING AS A BUSINESS
Farming is a business!
The approach given to any
profitable enterprise must also be given to the farming enterprise to render it
profitable and sustainable. Farming has over many decades received stereotypic
judgments as not been a suitable career path for many people since it cannot be
a good source of income. We must come to the understanding that there is a lot
of money in the soil. I believe a new generation of young vibrant ‘’agripreneurs’’(agricultural
entrepreneurs) are springing up to offset this status quo and bring the
sophistication and innovation needed to sustainably feed the world. With the
worlds population projected to reach nine billion people by 2050, farming then
must be viewed as a business.
A few important actionable steps
are expedient for any startup or business venture to make it successful, and a
good business model is needed as such. Obviously if you fail to plan
appropriately to project your business into the future, you are definitely
planning to fail.
Planning the Farm Business
There are millions of business
plan models out there of which everyone professing theirs is the best. You can
search for these models though but want to share important items that are basic
and are found as the common attributes to all these models. Accompanying also
are the hidden ingredients of love for the business, passion, commitment and
perseverance to fight in the face of obstacles; knowing that when problems
abound solutions abound more and more. Additionally, one must know the basic legal
requirements in their country when starting a business.
The business plan should
highlight key product(s), key activities/processes and key customers. The
individual, in the key product segment should know the type of product to offer
into the market, how to produce them, its viability, strengths and weaknesses
compared to other competitors. The individual should be careful not to compete
over price only but on quality too. In the key activities, all the resources
must be gathered and taken through essential processes to obtain the needed
product. All these processes must be well organised and documented. In the key
customer segment, who has your money in their pocket and how to get that money
is your focus. Without the customer there is no business but exhibitions. The
purpose of any business is to improve lives and make money to then improve
lives. Knowing the customer is key, since they determine the cashflows, product
innovations, and marketing strategies.
So if it is a cabbage production (which is
really a profitable business) one is interested in, the individual must know
about the cabbage plant. Knowing the best high yielding seed variety, pest and
disease tolerance, drought resistance, soil requirements, maturity days and
other plant management practices are important. The key activities are
preparing land, nursing seedlings before transplanting, regular irrigation, spraying,
weeding and other farm management practices. Restaurants, Supermarkets, local
markets, export companies, retail stores, interested families are key customers
that can be directly contacted to sell to them with no much struggle due to its
high demand. This example can be applied to any type of farm business with a
guaranteed success.
Actions to take
More than 70% of the world’s poor
are rural dwellers with agriculture as their main source of food, income and
employment. These rural dwellers in most cases are less educated or have no
form of education. Governments and other private companies through public
private partnership must help educate these farmers on new methods of farming
as a business, subsidize inputs and provide finanacial aids to them.
Our educational systems have been
bias to agriculture painting this profession as full of drudgeries and no
return on investment. This must come to an end else we suffer the risk of not
been able to feed an ever increasing population.
Agriculture is a very profitable
career choice that can equally make one wealthy.
So what are you waiting for? Rush
now for the money in the soil!