Business people go into business for different reasons; some because they are pursuing a passion, other’s because they are broke and jobless, and others because they come from a family of business people. The common denominator among all business people is that they are all in business for the money. The really successful business people are few. I say this knowing that success is relative and that one’s person notion of success may be different from what another perceives success to be. To me, a successful agriculture entrepreneur is the one who recognise a specific consumer need that must be satisfied, identifies how to satisfy the consumer need, does his/her research and recognizes how best to satisfy that consumer need, determines whether it makes good business, and finally goes ahead to satisfy the consumer need and in the end, makes profit from the same.
In other words, an agricultural entrepreneur is able to plan and strategise and determine whether something is worth his/her time, effort and investment. He/she understands that good profits are obtained from a good strategy that includes serving prevailing market needs, with the right products, at the right time, place and price. This is basic marketing tips that every good agriculture entrepreneur understands. Whoever said customer is king needs to speak once more; this time, he needs to be heard by the farmers.
In Nigeria, people are flocking into agriculture in droves. This is a good thing, because as we all grew up hearing, ‘agriculture is the backbone of this country’. What most people do not know is that there is a difference between agriculture just for the sake of it (e.g. where people grow cassava just because the produce will be bought at whatever price by the brokers), and agriculture entrepreneurship (i.e. where people grow produce to serve a specific market need, and with a specific profit motive e.g. when someone recognizes a honey supply deficit in the market and therefore invests in bee keeping, knowing too well that the honey market is lucrative).
An old saying states that an old dog cannot learn new tricks, and for most of us, we are old (albeit being relatively young in age) when it comes to the mentality we have developed over the years. I do not know about you, but my agricultural teacher often stressed the point that small scale farming is for subsistence farmers, while large scale farming is what made real money for farmers. Loosely translated, that meant subsistence farming is a mere survival tactic. In other words, the farmer will never go hungry, but neither will he/she ever become wealthy as a result of his farming. I humbly submit that it is time we demystify such notions.
In Nigeria today, such mentality has been overtaken by events because, first, we have less arable land per person because of increased land subdivision. While my father was planting his cassava in his entire 45 acres of land, I can only farm on a fifteenth part of the land which I inherited from him. Does that mean that I can only get a fifteenth of the income he used to generate from his farm? Certainly not. I have to find ways to maximize the yields from the little land I have. Secondly, it has been proven that it’s not the size of the land that really matters, but what you do with it. Economies of scale still suggest that one can do much more, and at lesser costs when one has a bigger farm, but that does not mean that the rest of us whose farms are small cannot become agricultural entrepreneurs. All we need to do is be strategic. An agricultural entrepreneur for example can plant spinach in bags instead of planting potatoes in a ¼ acre piece of land. It does not matter how much he/she loves potato farming; the rule of the thumb is, if it does not make economic sense, leave it.
There is so much I can write about in regard to being an agricultural entrepreneur. However, (and because I do not want to bore you), the main ones have been covered herein: They are:
i. What is the market need you want to serve?
ii. Are you able to serve the market need satisfactorily (i.e. without overstretching yourself and disappointing consumers)?
iii. Will your products get to the right market and the right time (e.g. milk getting to the markets when it’s still fresh market at the right time)?
iv. Finally, will the prices make good economic sense to you? (Consider worse market scenarios- e.g. when the market is flooded by similar products from your competitors).
I’ll also tell you what an agriculture entrepreneur is not. He/she is not whimsical –i.e. he/she does not grow or farm something because it’s the ‘in thing’. That means that the agricultural entrepreneur will not rush into rearing quails without first ascertaining whether there is enough consumer need and demand to ensure that his/her quail business is profitable and sustainable. The agricultural entrepreneur is also not reckless about how he/she invests her money. He/she is not into get-rich-quick schemes, and he/she is not ignorant.
As a final note (and this is a no-brainer), every worth agriculture entrepreneur keeps records. It’s the only way to track your expenses, your sales, and determine your losses or profits.
Happy farming Nigeria
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