Over the years, opportunities have sprung up in various sectors and have led to the upliftment of the bold people who took advantage of it irrespective of the risk that was involved. The discovery of oil, the massive revamp of the real estate industry, the mining sector and the transportation sectors presented opportunities that many capitalized on and up until now are benefiting immensely from. Unfortunately, our naturally gifted sector agriculture remains a black sheep amid other opportunities.
The major plight of the Agri-business sector has been the infamous misconceptions tagging the sector as being a risky and an unlucrative sector coupled with some unpopular opinions such as, ‘it’s a job for the poor’, ‘not lucrative’, ‘no financial support’, ‘just a side business to support the main one’, ‘a retirement job’ etc. has deterred a lot of potential investors, stakeholders and especially the youth as a whole from taking agriculture as a serious business as compared to the other sectors aforesaid.
All these negative ideologies are mostly from unsuccessful stories of some individuals who did not excel in the agriculture business due to one or two reasons, mostly caused by common mistakes made by these farmers such as; Not researching to know the sector before venturing into them, not having a secured sustainable ready market but just producing on assumptions, lack of planning, low supervision, mismanagement of funds just to mention a few. However, the positive side is that there are many stories of successful agricultural ventures and even millionaires who are making it in the agricultural sector.
Thus, the need to know why they are succeeding where the others failed. Many successful people and companies are making wealth from agriculture. First among them is Enersto Tarricon, CEO of Trassaco Group; the 2nd richest man in Ghana with a net worth of US$ 1.3 million, the Trassaco Group has a subsidiary agribusiness known as Empire Builders Ghana, this company controls about 150,000 acres and another 52000 acres under Sant Agata Agricultural Property of Barone dedicated to pineapple, banana, and other agricultural development.
Second, on the list is Nabil Moukarzel; worth over $900 million and in the list of top 10 richest men in Ghana. Nabil’s wealth has been attributed to the success of his company, Finatrade Group which is one of the largest food manufacturing and food distribution companies in Ghana and West Africa. Moukarzel’s company is Ghana’s largest distributor of food, especially local and imported rice and other commodities.
There are more like Dr. Kwabena Darko, Ceo of Darko Farms which has one of the most successful poultry farms in Ghana, Mr. Anthony Kofi Gyamfi Ceo of Topman Farms, the largest poultry farm in West Africa, other successful farmers include MM Awal farms, John Dumelo, Mr Sapei Kwadei of Bankyekrom, Nkukuninkaka Farms among others who are successfully managing thousands of acres farmlands with various commodities. These success stories give a clear light that there is a huge chance of success if one ventures into the agricultural business. This also proves clearly that most people with failed projects one way or the other were complacent in the application of some basic business principle in managing their agri-business projects whiles the successful people took those basic practices seriously. It cannot be ignored just like any other business, some unsuccessful agricultural businesses did everything right but still failed because of the unstructured and unsupportive system that cause a series of problems, especially for startups in the agricultural sector. However, there is a 90% assurance that if owners of agricultural businesses especially the farmers will manage their farms just like how they would manage petroleum, transportation or services business, they will succeed. There are Six (6) basic steps that every start-up or existing agricultural business should follow if they want to succeed and make millions in agriculture.
1. Research into the Project; a common mistake made by many unsuccessful farmers or people who venture into agriculture is that they do not do a thorough check on the particular crop or animal they want to venture into. Some venture into it because some people are already succeeding in it. The right thing to do to succeed is to research about the particular product you want to invest in, seek advice from experts or agronomists’ specialists, know the best location, the market trend, the down seasons, basically the pros and cons of the product to be familiar with what you are venturing into and make the necessary preparations to face any challenge that may arise.
2. Specialize in one Product; Many people have failed in their agri-businesses because they did not focus on a specific project. Being a jack of all trades with limited resources and expertise in many fields is a very risky thing to do. Specialization and gradual expansion into other projects are always safer and prudent if you want to makea fortune from agriculture. This allows you to grow steadily and manage the project and its associated problems one step at a time.
3. Set a Goal, Strategize & Execute; After targeting a specific product, set a goal that can be achieved using the resources at your immediate disposal, develop a strategy that can be understood by partners and execute the plan with strict supervision.
4. Good Location; With the research knowledge and your goal and strategy in place, the next thing you have to consider is using that research knowledge to get a good location where the project has a higher percentage of thriving, take into consideration the history of such projects in the location, the concentration of similar projects against the demand in the area, the potential ready market availability and also cost in managing the farm at such an area. It is not advisable to set up a pig farm in a Muslim community, because Muslims do not take pork. Make sure the business is located at a place where you can constantly supervise in person.
4. Ready Market: Kwame Nkrumah said, “before you produce know who will buy your products”. The ready market is the single most important factor in the agribusiness value chain as this is the major factor for any agribusiness to realize its profits. Without the ready market, all efforts from the beginning to the end becomes a “cos 90 job”. The best decision any entity can make is to secure the market for the product before the products are produced. In simple terms, if you want to produce cassava, you must seal a purchase agreement with a buyer being it a market woman or a processing factory or even an end-user. With this approach, you are always guaranteed your profit instead of opting for the normal charade assumptions that since people buy the product, or there is a high demand for the product your produce automatically will have a market.
5. Well Structured Administration and Finance: The Final point any Agribusiness should take seriously is the administration. Most agricultural businesses have collapsed because of the lack of basic administrative practices. There are a few basic administrative tricks that every business should take note of.
Keep logistic and financial records, prepare income and expenditure and financial reports for your farm, this will enable you to know if you are making progress or not so you can take the necessary actions before it is too late.
Do not spend your capital or the returns from your farm on personal things. Rather save the capital plus a percentage of the profit and reinvest into the project. For this purpose, always try to register your farm and get a separate account aside personal account for the farm.
Lastly, always put more time into supervising your farm and also treat your workers well. There is a saying that a happy worker is a productive worker. Always make sure that your worker’s salaries or allowances grow as your farm’s finances grow. If your workers are happy there’s a high possibility that they will give their all to grow your farm. As your farm grows make sure that you get qualified individuals to run the various departments. An agricultural business is like any other business, if you treat your agri-business like a side job, you will reap a side income. If you treat your agribusiness as a serious business or a multimillion-dollar business you will reap your multi-million-dollar profit. The Big Six approach can be summarized into a short sentence; “Research and Specialize into a Set Goal and Execute in a Good Location with a Ready Market and Well-Structured Administration”.
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