Doing this post for the benefit of those people who are daily enquiring about agribusiness. My Twitter inbox is full of questions like: how do I join agribusiness (like it’s a club); what do I need to start farming; how much capital do I need to start farming; how much capital do I need to farm onions; how much does a greenhouse cost…
It’s really inspiring to see all these interested fellows, most of who are fellow young people. In the past farming has always been associated with the old and the rural folks but not any more. Today farming is one of the biggest job creating sectors in the market. In Kenya alone we have many graduands out here who are jobless and desperate enough to do anything, and most of these are ending up in agribusiness. Farming is the mother of all trades and has to be respected. Has to be taken seriously and if a youth wants to become a farmer to make money and earn a living from it, then I’ll encourage them. If they need information, we are here for them. So keep on asking those questions and I promise to answer the best I can.
But the first question I always ask is: are you motivated enough? How far are you willing to go?
I will ask you those questions before I even start going to the resources at your disposal. It’s important. Passion is okay, but it’s not more important than the motivation. Most young farmers today are not doing it because they’re passionate about farming but because for them it’s a way of making ends meet which is a motivation enough to do it and do it right. Agribusiness like any other business venture has its own challenges and if you’re not motivated enough it’s easy to give up. You have to be resilient.
I have a cousin, a GSU officer farming onions. When he started — that was before he told me about it — he had taken a loan of Kshs. 180,000 and invested all of it in the half an acre project. Unfortunately because of poor planning and management of the project, it failed. Infact he only got 25k. But the guy was motivated. He didn’t give up. He reached out to me and now he has extended the project to a full acre. He’s excited at the progress of his onions and I’m sure it’ll be a good harvest.
As you can see first is the motivation before anything else. And to those asking about the quotations, the capital, should understand that you’re starting a business, a startup and in any startup you need capital. And contrary to what most people think, farming has become quite expensive due to the exorbitant cost of inputs in the recent years. The onion seeds alone are so expensive you can’t get anything for less than 25k.
So after assuring yourself agribusiness is what you want to do, start your research. Research is very important as well. What do you want to farm? Research about it. Start with how to grow the crop or rear the animal to the market. Visit farmers already doing it and ask questions and take notes.
Last, check your pockets and see how much you’ve got and if it ain’t enough, start small. In agribusiness we always encourage people to start small if they lack the resources to start big. Start small and then grow big. You don’t have to lease a whole acre if you don’t have enough capital, you can even start with a quarter an acre and then next time go to half, and then to an acre. You don’t have to start your piggery with ten pigs. You can just start with two or even one quality breeds like the Landrace or Large White.
Don’t let the farmers that already made it, posting those enticing selfies taken on fancy farms scare you. Just be you and do you. You will be alright. All the best.