Thread by @Trado_Father

AGRIBUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES AND COLLABORATIONS.(A THREAD)

We can say opportunities in Agribusiness or Agribusiness opportunities. Though when I first saw the topic and analyzed it, I felt the collaborations is not really necessary because there is collaborations in business

already either by government, cooperative body or individual.

Agribusiness is simply agricultural entrepreneurship, farming and any commercial farm-related activity from primary production (crop and livestock production), processing, marketing,

logistics (distribution of raw and processed food).

The term agribusiness was first introduced by Davis and Goldberg in 1957.

Agribusiness has been growing massively over the last decade due to the campaign of food security in the country with most investor focus on growing non-oil sector of the economy. According to National Bureau of Statistics(NBS).

The Nigeria Agriculture sector contributed 21.91% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019.

Before we go deep on this topic, I have a little tip. When you finally dicided to go to Agribusiness, because I'm 100% sure you will, it is important to note that, farmland appreciate in value with crop yield every year.

I always advice that, as a newcomer and probably as a young fellow in agriculture like myself, farmland should not be part of your expense right from the onset of your attempt in farming because it's a big expense.

Also,farmland is always too slow to appreciate because of the distance to the town, you know every town has it's own farm area which is always at the outskirt of the town. Anyway my advice is, you should farm to buy land not buy land to farm.

The greatest investment a nation and an individual can make is Agriculture. Agribussines to the nation is for food security, job creation and economy diversification.

There are two major type of Agriculture; Crop production and Animal Husbandry.

So, Agribusiness consists of four major sectors
[1] Agricultural input
[2] Agricultural production
[3] Agricultural processing
[4] Agricultural marketing

These sectors are interrelated, the success of one is solely dependent on the success of the other. As an entrepreneur in Agriculture, you need to be in all sectors for an easy success in food security for the nation and for your pocket.

Agribusiness is a business that has several opportunities. You can start the busines at your pace, all you need is to be in the realm to relate and get the full scope of the sectors you want to focus on.

The opportunities are not just in owning a farm but in businesses that involves transactions with farmers, that's what makes agriculture a very big and wide venture.

Nevertheless, just like any other business, Agribusiness has his own challenges ranging from man made to natural.Agribusiness is a low risk business though. One of the major challenges of Agribusiness is financing. Let's emphasize on the risk here, that's a big topic on it's own.

Moreover, there are tens of opportunities in Agribusiness. We have to refer to the Agriculture sectors we listed before, which are input, production, processing and marketing. I will be stating opportunities on crops because that's where I'm specialized in,

I know very less about livestock production.

Let's start

PRE-PRODUCTION SECTOR

Farm Machineries: in modern farming, you can't do without machines from the land preparation to harvesting, basically this particular opportunity in Agribusiness is for the rich.

2. Seed and seedlings operation: Seed/seedlings are one of the most important part of Agriculture. Like the adage says "what you sow you will reap". You can start selling seeds and seedlings for farmers that will plant or transplant.

3. Agrochemicals Industry: both for herbicides, pesticides or any other neccessary agrochemicals. This is very ideal aspect you can venture into because of its importance in mordern agriculture.

4. Planting service: If you're yet to set up your farm, you can build a business around planting seeds or seedlings for other farmers in your area. But that's a stressful work with less income.

5. Fertilizer Production: fertilizer is one of the most important inputs in farming because it used most frequently in mordern agriculture. There are 2 types, Organic and Inorganic fertilizers. Though I use manure most times instead.

6. Equipment rental : you can start an equipment rental service since most small scales farmers can't afford the proper equipment to use on their farm, but they will be happy rent it at cheap rate. This system doesn't pay the farmers but it's builds your own business. so enjoy 😀

PRODUCTION SECTOR

Is the sector with most opportunities in Agribusiness, because there are 100s of food to produce, likewise, tens of animals to rear.

1. Vegetable farming: you can plant different varieties of vegetables like green pepper,okra, cucumber, red pepper(chilly, habanero, that's rodo) and the likes. Vegetables are one of the crops that attracts market because we all eat them almost everyday if not everyday.

2. Fruit farming : fruits are use for immediate consumption and for further processing for juice, jams or other fruit drinks. Fruits are game changing farming, very lucrative.

@olusegunyemi @ShaKKiroh @Nig_Farmer @AeeshaMcOseni @UnclePamilerin @marksman_agrics

3. Fishery or aquaculture is a lucrative livestock farming and Rabbit raising is one of the livestock farming that is growing rapidly.

4. Livestock feed manufacturing: Even if you don’t have enough space to actually farm livestock, you can still contribute to the industry by manufacturing feed for livestock and make even more than the farmers.

POST-PRODUCTION SECTOR

1. Processing sector is the biggest sector in agribusiness. Converting of produces in production sectors, fruits, grains, meat, vegetables and all.

All sectors are important like I said at the beginning of this write up that “the success of one sector depends on another” but this sectors is very important because of the most farm produce for immediate consumption.

Some of the opportunities in processing sectors are; juice processing, meat processing and so on.

Processing sector of agribusiness is very lucrative and with almost zero risk because you are the only factor that can define your success unlike the production sector where anything can happen even with good farm management and techniques.

However this sector is for the rich, because it requires a lot of money to start compare to other sectors. Proper branding is one of the major challenge.

Marketing sector: this sector is in all other sectors of agribusiness because it involves all negotiating and conversion part of the business. However this sectors can as well be treated in a very big way on its own.

Many opportunities are in the marketing sector of agribusiness; buying from the farmers to the processing companies;

this is actually one of the problems of small holder farmers are facing because majority of middlemen buys at very ridiculous price to even gain more than the farmers that went through all the stress and risks,

as a new comer or you’ve been in the business before please be fair to the farmers while biding they went through a lot.

Logistics is the only challenge you can have in this sector. Marketing of the processed foods is also a great opportunity.

Logistics:is the most underdeveloped sector of agric industry,even though has a lot of potentials. One of the factors undermining this sector is the state of roads and other government policies.Investing in the logistics is advisable but with a couple of risks at the moment.

In conclusion, agribusiness is very wide, all the highlighted points can be treated with thousands of lines.
Every way is a way in Agribusiness, but it is important to focus on a field and be an expert in it.

The only way to explore all sectors in agriculture is by collaboration, you can’t know it all. You need people, people need you. For food security and for your pocket.

#YouthInAgriculture #ZeroHunger
#agribusiness #Agritech