As one considers what to do to make a living on perhaps that two-acre parcel you’ve had for a while or going fully into agriculture; there are major factors to consider, a screen through which one’s dreams must pass.
Here are some factors we have identified;
A passion for growing:
Labour from the heart is all the passion a potential farmer needs. One has to have the internal fire that stays lit despite setbacks and through hard times.
Location:
Whether you’re planning on going all out (large scale) or considering something small, your farm proximity is a big deal. Your farm should be within a reasonable distance of potential customers. Since everyone’s time is at a premium, logic dictates farming a short distance of a city or town where one can quickly deliver to the consumers or they can easily come to pick up produce and see the farm.
Ongoing Education:
If you must do it, you certainly need to know how to. And knowing how isn’t an inbuilt feature.
Farming is a progressive venture where learning new skills, farming techniques, and innovations as well as sharing knowledge is part of day-to-day life.
Agriculture in itself requires a lot of unlearning, learning, and relearning.
“That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.” – Doris Lessi
Value-Added products:
Value-Added means adding labor to basic. Items in such a way that the end result is worth more than the beginning raw material. Tomatoes, for instance, maybe worth one hundred naira (N100) per pound raw, but much more when dried or after conversion to fancy ketchup and packaged/bottled in an attractive manner.
The point of Value-added is to add two naira (N2) worth of product to two naira (N2) worth of labor and then sell the new product for five naira (N5) instead of the traditional four naira (N4).
For this, we focus on higher-value items.
Like-minded partners:
We believe it takes two like-minded, extremely supportive people to make most start-up enterprises work. And starting up a farm, like any other enterprise is indeed intense during the early years and requires mutual focus, understanding, support, and appreciation to operate successfully.
Good luck and do have an awesome, productive farm cycle.
