Good morning and happy new week everyone.

I want to quickly talk about the right time to start planning for 2022 season and what you should cultivate.

I have been jumping from one state to another over the past weeks in states where we have our farm estates trying to put in motion what's needed to successfully start early our planting production for 2022.

The time to start preparation is now.
If you are waiting till next year,then you might be late.

For those interested in yam production, if you don't have your heap done this year,then you might be late.
We learn from that this year,when other farmers were harvesting theirs,ours was still on the farm and predisposes it to few challenges I am going to talk about later.

For what we have done so far in some locations,we should start cultivating the land by the first rain and we should be able to cultivate twice before the end of 2022.
That's the advantage of starting early.

With so many crops still awaiting harvest,I hope not to spend the whole of December on the farm

The life of a farmer is challenging and as well greatly rewarding.
Special shout out to all farmers.

So house,early preparation is the key.

Good morning and have a blessed week

Happy new year
Prosperity and God's blessing await us this new season to everyone on this platform.
Amen.

Happy new year everyone
This is the 4th day of 2022, remaining 361 days to go
What are you doing about your goals?
Have you started working on it?

This year has been declared as the year of prosperity,as the year of goodness,as the year of great harvest,as the year of opportunities etc

People,if we don't have plan and work it out,then we might not experience it.

The rest is over and now is to get to work and work out the goals for 2022.

My goal is to make more money for all our partners under our management and for WaleAgro by increasing our acreage of cultivation.

What's your own goal and how are you working on it?

It's not going to be easy,it's not going to be business as 2021, you will have to raise the bar little bit higher,work harder and smarter and I hope by 31st of December,2022, you can look back and thank God for the best year ever.

By the way,we are in need of farm supervisors in ijebu-igbo,ogbomoso,Ilorin and apomu
If you know a fresh graduate with B.sc/B.Tech/HND in any agric related field,S/he should send their CV to yusuffgbenga@gmail.com for urgent employment.

Thank you and have a blessed week

We are Hiring!!
See flyers for details

Lesgupnigeria:

About 75 suckers

Thanks for the enormous support from you.
Please, how many sucker do l need to plant on 200feet by 200feet?

Report Shows 82% of Nigeria’s Agro-Allied Exports Rejected in Europe: The Shippers Association of Lagos (SALS) laments Nigeria’s agro-allied exports to Europe and other European Union (EU) countries. According to the association, 82% of the exported agro-allied products are rejected or confiscated in European Union countries.

Therefore, Rev. Jonathan Nicole, the president of (SALS) calls on the government and Nigeria Port Authority of Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) to address some of these challenges and primary causes of marine backwardness.

https://businesselitesafrica.com/report-shows-82-of-nigerias-agro-allied-exports-rejected-in-europe/

esiri4jesu:

Thanks for the enormous support from you.
Please, how many sucker do l need to plant on 200feet by 200feet?

You will need like 800 suckers

A friend called me yesterday,he said “Your President said we should go back to farm to boost the economy and reduce employment”

Guess he was trying to seek my views as to what Mr Bihari said having known me as a farmer

Yes,getting involved in farming will boost our economy and reduce drastically unemployment but the government needs to do more in terms of subsidizing, providing machineries and adequate security especially in the hotzones regions to enable Nigerians venture into agriculture

If you don't have access to machineries or you are located in the hot zones where there is no security,Do not go into agriculture…..you will regret it.

We have serious food insecurity in this country and it requires Nigerians to go back to the land and create wealth for themselves.

I received many messages yesterday concerning my last post.

I think there is a lot of aspect of agriculture you need to know for a successful farm business

I will categories the aspects I believe you need to get adequate knowledge in and take action on for profitable year

1.Finance

2.Agricultural value chains

3.Marketing

Which one of these do you want to gain more knowledge from within 1 week?

Let me know from the comment section and we shall commence training on it

It's actually FREE.

#agriculture#farm

Many Nigerians have been complaining of food price increase in the market.

Last 2 year,I wrote how we will continue to experience such until if we addressed the issue of insecurity especially in the North,climate change, lack of storage facilities to reduce wastage,etc.

Year in year out,we have been experiencing such although this year is worse.

A price of commodities have increase by over 60% over the last few months and I guess it will continue to go up till around May when we will see prices coming down.

Can we solve this?

Yes we can

Massive cultivation and production of foods and infrastructure to reduce wastage will go a long way

There is no other time to venture into agriculture than now.

Inflation keeps more money into my pocket as a farmer and a producer.

Another season is approaching,join the train.

Plan should be to do on a massive scale because that's where the money is, though with good management.

Want to acquire farmland on any of our farm estates or get trained on how to start your farm business,then get in touch

#Itstimetoventureintoagribusiness

Don't. Be afraid to go for your dream
#doagric

This One Thing Can Make or Mar The Success Of Your Farm Business This Year

If you are a new entrant in the agricbusiness sector or new investor looking to get started ,what I am about to share is very important and to a larger extent will determine your long term success or whether your venture is going to crumbled.

This main factor of success is being overlooked because we are always looking at how to increase yield,how to procure the right inputs,how to cultivate etc.

As an agro-preneur,farm owners,traders, farmer or you have anything to do with farm business,there is every possibility that you will engage your local community/communities where you farm,or source agroproduce from.

Your success largely depend on how you/your business relate with your communities.

There are many things to discuss,I hope we can extensively discuss it on one of our webinar coming up soon

This what I am about to share is one of the proven operation playbook that have increase revenue for us and can do the same for you by larger revenue margin especially for medium to large scale farm operations.

Communities differs from values,cultures, orientation,etc but two things are important when engaging them

Many communities are faced with social issues like lack of clean water, electricity, schools etc

Focus your corporate social responsibility on providing this amenities for them if you have the means or set aside percentage of your revenue for this.

Second,do not leave the sole management of your farm with the locals.

This is why we see many farm fail.

Over the last few years,I have seen many new entrant make this mistake.

They leave their farm in the hand of someone in the community to oversee and manage their farm which allow side selling of your produce and mismanagement of output.

The best you can do is to train them,and put them under the management of your trained team.

If you don't have a team,then be in charge and,be on ground.

Good morning and have a pleasant week

2 Ways Farm Business Put Money Into Your Pocket (First One Is Hidden)

Just about 4 years ago,we acquire about 4.04 million sqm of farmland in ogbomoso which we used to establish one of our farm estates.

After it was surveyed and secured,I paid a visit and I was like “God,how do we get here”

Thick bushes everywhere,you can hardly see the next person 5metre away.

But something kept telling me “well,we are not using it for housing estate,we are using it majorly for farming”

I guess my mind was trying to encourage me to accept the fate.

I believe that one day,it will turn to a town or city but I didn't believe the rate of development will be so fast.

Like my Dad use to say “ the cities of today were villages of yesterday”

The said location is now turning to a town with full social amenities everywhere

Many years ago,a potential client from Europe wanted to acquired large expanse of farmland to start a farm business but surprisingly said he is not longer interested in that particular location.

I asked him “why?”

He said “ the location is undeveloped and bushy”

Recently,I did a drone video of the same location and sent to him

He was like “wow”

He was surprised by the changes that has taken place and he wanted to key in but unfortunately the expanse of land is no longer available in that location

If anybody tells you to come and buy farmland inside bush,don't hesitate.

It seems our rural side is developing faster than we thought possible as seen from all of our farm estate locations.

Apart from appreciation of our land,it is also yielding revenue for WaleAgro and all of our partners in the various locations.

First,you have your land appreciate in value and

Second,your land keep generating revenue for you till forever

Agriculture is truly a double edged profitable sword.

This is the right time to plug in!!

3 important steps you should take if you want to smile to the bank this year (You Won't without doing No 3)

I normally thought that I give super attention to our crops,not until when we planted watermelon � one time and we messed it up; because we didn’t give it the regular attention it ask of

We didnot do a weeding and insecticide application during the lifecycle.

Farm business is an unforgiven venture especially if you don't give it the attention it requires.

For those that want to venture into agriculture but have other job you are doing; you might not be on the farm everyday but I have discovered what works.

First,employ a hand that's not from or reside in the community your farm is located to avoid side selling of your produce and your inputs. (You can check my previous articles on this for more details)

Employ them in your farm but don't put them in charge of critical areas that can determine the success/failure of your farm venture

I remember when we ordered some trucks of cassava stems from Benin that has never been grown in this particular community and about a months after I paid a visit,started seeing this particular varieties on the farms of the farmers within the community.

Another time,we ordered this fast maturing okra seeds (the ones that takes 2 and half months, usually grown by the Hausas),Before we know it,we have started seeing this particular varieties on farms,the same goes for all of our seeds.

We stopped noticing this trends until we relieve this particular guy from handling the input section.

Secondly,proper documentation,

If you will not give critical areas to those in the community,at least you give it to those outside the community and can deliver

You need to have agreement written in pen and paper about what's expected from the hand you employed and frequent follow up

This is the second step to take.

I was taught in my primary school by my no-nonsense computer teacher (Mr Bello),the term GIGO.

He drum GIGO into our stubborn head with cane to the extent that the term stuck with us many decades after we left school.

It means the quality of whatever you give your computer determines the quality of data you get out

Simply Garbage in garbage

The same applies to agriculture

The quality and quantity of whatever you plant determines the quality /quantity of what you can get out.

About 95% of farm are not mechanized in such a way that you have planter to plant accurately the number of seeds at the right spacing to plant for you.

So you need to be physically available during the planting operations to organize your workers so that they can plant the right spacing and have the right quantity of seeds planted on your farm.

An acre planted with 1000 maize seed will not give you the same thing as an acre planted with 10,000 seeds.

NOTE: You have to be available during the harvesting time to avoid your workers mismanaging your output

Your availability both during the planting time and harvesting time is VERY IMPORTANT

If you don't have the time for these activities,then the best you can do is to partner with organisation or firm that is into farm management and that's also involved in farm business

So,thirdly,you need to be available in critical operations such as planting and harvesting if you want to smile to the bank this year.
#doagric

2 shocking things you don't know about acquiring farmland that could cost you lot of money

Land is an asset and you can't do without it as far as agriculture is concerned.

Either you own it or you lease it.

Like few of the numerous questions relating to farmland I am been asked by those who wanted to venture into farm business

“i want to start oilpalm,do you have land for lease”

“I want to start soybeans farm,can I get farmland in your farm estate”

“I want to start cocoa,can I get land to lease”

First,you can't lease land for long term/perennial crop

Crops such as cashew,cocoa,oilpalm etc

Even if you lease land for perennial crops,you will need to lease it for 15-20 years but where will you see land owner that will lease land to you for that long years?

That's why I normally advice “buy outrightly so that you can have ownership right and cultivate anything on your land”.

Many years ago,we were looking at acquiring piece of farmland in a thick bush.

Remember my earlier post

“ If you have the opportunity to buy land in a bush,don't hesitate because the cities of today were villages of yesterday”

I don't want to go fully into that details,read my previous post

After all the necessary processes done,we bought the land.

My team were surprise that we could close the deal very soon,faster than the earlier land purchases.

What I did not verbally tell them was that the cheap price was the real thing that make me influence the fast closure of the deal

What happened next would be one of my greatest lessons

We started cultivation and realized that we had to construct roads,build infrastructures, security spending more than double of the cost of acquiring the land.

Then I realized “cheap is costly”

Now before I look at price,I look at so many other things.


Land is an asset and you can't do without it as far as agriculture is concerned.

Either you own it or you lease it.

Like few of the numerous questions relating to farmland I am been asked by those who wanted to venture into farm business

“i want to start oilpalm,do you have land for lease”

“I want to start soybeans farm,can I get farmland in your farm estate”

“I want to start cocoa,can I get land to lease”

First,you can't lease land for long term/perennial crop

Crops such as cashew,cocoa,oilpalm etc

Even if you lease land for perennial crops,you will need to lease it for 15-20 years but where will you see land owner that will lease land to you for that long years?

That's why I normally advice “buy outrightly so that you can have ownership right and cultivate anything on your land”.

Many years ago,we were looking at acquiring piece of farmland in a thick bush.

Remember my earlier post

“ If you have the opportunity to buy land in a bush,don't hesitate because the cities of today were villages of yesterday”

I don't want to go fully into that details,read my previous post

After all the necessary processes done,we bought the land.

My team were surprise that we could close the deal very soon,faster than the earlier land purchases.

What I did not verbally tell them was that the cheap price was the real thing that make me influence the fast closure of the deal

What happened next would be one of my greatest lessons

We started cultivation and realized that we had to construct roads,build infrastructures, security spending more than double of the cost of acquiring the land.

Then I realized “cheap is costly”

Now before I look at price,I look at so many other things.

#Agricultureislife

Do agric Itpays

Happy Sunday everyone

The first and important decision to get right that hinges on your success in farm business

If you just bought your farmland for cultivation,

Well,don't jubilate too quickly especially if you are a newbie farmer and you do not put some factors into consideration before purchase

This happened to me and my farmer friends many years ago.

I bought 50 hectares and was very happy,ready to start cultivating the land.

My farmer friends bought their ranging from 20- 25 hectares at different locations.

We were very happy and motivated to start our farm business.

Two months into our farm cultivation,we started having series of issues; like cows straying into our different farms, poor road access,lack of adequate manpower.

That was the first time we were expose to challenges that's about to stand between us and our goals.

At the end of the day,we tried our best to mitigate some of the challenges, and i learnt lessons that would brought about our first farm estate.

I thought “What if we acquire larger expanse of farmland where those interested in farming can purchase farmland and conduct their farming business why we provide solutions to the common challenges of security,road accessibility,market, etc that we normally encounter ” and that's why we have our farm estates created.

The decision on overall success

When I say that we have one of the most secured,accessible, farm estates in Nigeria with friendly people, environment where you can acquire your farmland and start your farm business,with access to manpower,farm equipment, and market for your produce;

Nigerians both home and abroad have acquired their farmland from our various farm estates and ventured successfully into farm business.We are located in ijebu-igbo,ogbomoso, Ilorin,apomu.

#doagricitpays

Agriculture will be a whooping $1 trillion industry by 2030 in africa as predicted by world bank


If you are able to get just 1% market share of the $1 trillion,that will be a whooping $10 billion.


That should get you within the range of the first 30 richest people in the world 


Are you ready to put in the hardwork?


What about the smart work?


Are you ready to work hard for the long haul?


Are you ready to go big and be actively involved along the value chain?


Are you ready for collaboration and partnership with like minded people?


Are you ready to start from wherever you are irrespective of your financial,social status ?


It doesn't matter where you start from,just start and remain focus.


A silent agric revolution is going on.


Be part of it 


Plug yourself in.


Invest your time and resources into it.


It is possible only if you remain focus.


Good morning 

#mondaymotivation

Letter to agric investors 2022

Dear prospective agric investor,

I wrote a letter in 2021 and I am writing another one in 2022 as a reminder to those who want to venture into agriculture.

I know you want to make money from agriculture and you want to make it bigThat's a good aspiration which require consistent efforts,time,learning/relearning for you to achieve that.

I also know that you might have been seeing or hearing "invest 50k,100k etc and earn 50%,70% in 6months"

What would you cultivate that you earn 50% in 6 months;which is about 100% in a year except if you are cultivating weeds.

Do not fall for it or create that mindset of agriculture being a 'getting quick,big roi or getting quick rich scheme' and go to invest blindly....I can assure you that disappointment and probably total loss will be the experience.

As an experienced farmer, and agro-investor ,agriculture provides a stream of income that may never dry for a lifetime if done properly and not quick riches.Taking the right decision,patience, and consistency is the code of the game.

Over the past few years,I have seen people leave their paying job and want to cash out of the quick riches agriculture present

Do not leave your job!

Your job should be a means to create that streams of income.

You cannot create and enjoy the streams of income in agriculture without money to invest.

As a graduate looking to start agribusiness,go and look for a job and gradually invest the little resources you are getting into agriculture or you go and start agricultural trading

Note that you can't create streams of income from agrotrading but it can give you income to leverage on to start your farm business properly.

Today alone,I have received more than 5 calls of people seeking advice/remedy that made the wrong investment because they are looking for 70% ROI in 6 months

It's better to be informed now and take necessary precaution than to make wrong investment and be seeking for remedy

This is my message for those that want to invest in agriculture come 2022

Have a blessed day

#waleagro#agriculture#agribusiness#ijebu#farm#farmestate#nigeria#lagos#ilorin#kwara#oyo#lagos#farming#farmbusiness#farmer

#DoagricItpays

One major lesson i learnt acquiring farmland for agriculture

Farmland is an asset and will outlive you.
Either you acquire from individual,firms,families,communities etc, there is need to do proper documentation with the human/s or firm you are buying from.

After years of land banking thousand of acres of land from different states in Nigeria,few lessons i learnt which I am going to hare at the later part of this post.

Your children's children might be a beneficiary of your landed asset after you have benefited from it and first let me share the documents you must procured to authenticate your ownership status

1.Deed of Assignment/transfer document detailing the number of plots/acres bought,the individual/firm you are buying from, the cost of the land etc

2. Registered survey documents (Redcopy)

Legally,it's very difficult to contest the ownership of your land if you don't have a registered survey document of the land.
And that's why I advice people to register their land with the ministry of land of the states you are acquiring your land after obtaining the deed of assignment.

Cost of Redcopy differs from states to states
The south western states seems to have higher cost compare to the Northern ones except Abuja and very few others but you can check with your surveyor or from ministry of land of the state you are acquiring the land.


3. CofO

After getting your registered survey document,you can now start the process of obtaining your certificate of occupancy
According to the land use act of 1978,you have 99 years tenure on the land.
You can as well use land with CofO as collateral for loans


Few lessons have been learnt over the years of acquiring farmland which has guided our process of acquisition

1.No document,no land
It's not the person that first start working on the land that has the land,it's the person with document.

2. Farmland is not an end itself,it's a means to an end which means after acquiring your lands,you need to put it into productive use
That's why we will be cultivating most of our lands this year for them to start generating revenue for us.

Want to also acquire large acres of farmland for cultivation,and need consultation on how to go about it, kindly get in touch.

Good evening… I have two plots of land that I want to commit to plantain farming .. I want to humbly request for your mentorship on this journey

Good evening, I've been following your tread all week, I need advise, I want to go into farming, mainly crop for now, I have no idea at all apart from the normal Agric I did in secondary school, I didn't even do anything relating to Agric in uni� for now I can only do it on part time basis, hopefully by next year I can go fully into it but I want to start this year, anytime soon.
Can you pls give me ideas on how to start, where I can get farmland, hopefully somewhere close to Lagos, like Mowe or Abeokuta, how much does it cost to lease or buy heactares and some other necessary things I should take into consideration.
Thank you.

OlajireA:
Good evening, I've been following your tread all week, I need advise, I want to go into farming, mainly crop for now, I have no idea at all apart from the normal Agric I did in secondary school, I didn't even do anything relating to Agric in uni� for now I can only do it on part time basis, hopefully by next year I can go fully into it but I want to start this year, anytime soon.
Can you pls give me ideas on how to start, where I can get farmland, hopefully somewhere close to Lagos, like Mowe or Abeokuta, how much does it cost to lease or buy heactares and some other necessary things I should take into consideration.
Thank you.

Kindly call or send WhatsApp to +2349031147593
We have. Farmland for sale on any of our farm estates in ijebu-igbo,apomu, ogbomoso,and ilorin and can also enrol in any of our training classes.
You can join our farm training class for more info

Good afternoon Sir, is there any lease in Ijebu Igbo and for the sales can you give me the price range at ijebu Igbo, is it close to road/water and fertility of the soil. For the training center can you give me the name and location, training days.
Thank you.

lamibakers:
Good evening… I have two plots of land that I want to commit to plantain farming .. I want to humbly request for your mentorship on this journey

Kindly send message to WhatsApp to +2349031147593
Thanks

The only one thing stopping you from where you are now to where you want to be is your inability to TAKE MASSIVE ACTION

You want to have additional source of income through agriculture, Take action!

You want to be self employed by starting your own farm, Take Action!

You want to generate a 7 figure income by scaling up production,Take Action!

Don't let challenges be it financial,economic, stop you from talking action

Start from where you are and continue to take actions everyday.

The year is running out fast

If you want to go to another level start with taking action.

Only taking massive action everyday can take you to your next level of growth.

Agriculture is a goldmine and at the same it is filled with risk-mines that can blow your operation up and mess you up.

As we begin this farming season and prepare for land cultivation,there is need for adequate risk management.

Many years ago,I was busy pressing my calculator calculating millions WaleAgro and our partners would make from our almost-harvest-ready plantain plantation when I received a call from one of our farm workers

"Hello sir"
"Our farm is on fire"
What!!!
The farm is on fire?
Who put fire?
How did it happen?
Which area of the farm?
Many questions were running on my mind simultaneously and I was so confused.
The fire was so much that it took volunteers from the local communities that share boundaries with our farm to put out the fire.
Trucks,cars were used to ferry water to quench the fire
At the end of the day,about 70 acres were destroyed by fire

Unfortunately,we didnot insure the farm and have to pay for that mistake.

That taught me a lesson
"Always insure your farm whether it's a prevalence occurrence there or not,always prepare for unforseenable, unexpected and uncontrollable outcome"

That's the only way to manage risks
It saves you time and resources and also you are able to bounce back quickly if anything goes wrong.

And it's just between 2.5%-5% of the cost of cultivation or cost of livestock you are insuring and % insurance charges also varies from one insurance company to another

You want to sleep and sleep well in the night,not thinking of anything going wrong with your crop/livestock.

You also don't want to have high BP when you are told that your farm is on fire because you know that your farm is insured and be compensated to start all over again.

Insuring your farm is a major risk management tool to manage eventualities like flooding,climate change,fire,act of God etc that might come up during your way of making money in farm business.

Two things I learnt from over a decade of engaging in farm business and what you can learn too

Farm business though promising can be one of the hardest venture you engage in.


You have multiple of risks ,the one in your control and the one out of your control to tackle;

Climate change,acts of God (flood,fire, storm etc),market instability, yield ,disease outbreaks etc


If you fail,learn from it but don't throw in the towel


Every failure is a stepping stone to a higher breakthrough


Don't see failure as the final verdict on any activities you are engaged in.

When you fall,dust yourself up,adjust, learn from the situation and start all over again


Though,I must admit that it is not easy to start again but you must do it nevertheless


Every successful agropreneurs I know today have had the urge to give in but the vision of the end goal seems to be stronger than the immediate urge.


I have had my own share as well.


In 2011,I wanted to give up, a good friend encourage me to keep at it.


Also in 2016 as well,the urge came when I thought we were not pushing as much as we should,a mentor encourage me and like they say,the rest is history


two things I have learnt 


First,surround yourself with positive people


Second,when you have that urge to give up,don't do it because you are about to turn the corner to your breakthrough.


Anytime the urge come is a signal that something huge is about to happen positively


Now with tens of thousands of acres on our farm estates across different states,I am happy I didn't give up.


Although we still have a long way to go

Giving up wouldn't have got us to where we are now.

There is always light at the end of the tunnel


So NEVER GIVE UP!
#farmbusiness#agriculture#nigeria