Greetings Nairalanders

I will go straight to my point.

My salary is 59k and after monthly deductions (loans) I get N39k and it remains just a month to finish paying up my loans and I go back to receiving 59k. I have a wife and 2 kids (5years and 2 years).

I already have 3 hectares of cassava and another 1 hectare which I intend planting tomatoes. Most things have been put in place for the tomatoes after going through a lot of threads and other peoples experience on tomatoes farming (especially Jethro). I have prepared the land, water is close by, I have made beds for the tomatoes and they have germinated and waiting transplant in 2-3 weeks.

A part of me says, if I leave my paid employment, things might not work out and its better that I continue to received the 59k (fear of the unknown). Another part of me says, to leave the job and channel all efforts towards the tomatoes farming that things would get better gradually. I have already made adequate plans for my family feeding for the next 12months, but I am still scared of quieting the job.

My ultimate question is this:Is tomatoes farming on an hectare of land sustainable?. I know it wont be that easy and it would require hard word. But can it sustain me better than a paid job. Should I quit and face farming?

Looking forward to advice mostly from tomatoes farmers and others as well.
Thank you

Hmmm. I will strongly advice you remain on your job for a while till you test run your tomatoes harvest.
Farming is very lucrative but it does not give constant cash flow like salary.
You however did not mention your wife's earning capacity. If she earns salary too, then you can afford to quit your job while she augment for any shortfall in the family income.
You mentioned 2 children and that is very critical. You can only afford to take calculated risk with two kids.
Best of luck.

olaeffect:
Hmmm. I will strongly advice you remain on your job for a while till you test run your tomatoes harvest.
Farming is very lucrative but it does not give constant cash flow like salary.
You however did not mention your wife's earning capacity. If she earns salary too, then you can afford to quit your job while she augment for any shortfall in the family income.
You mentioned 2 children and that is very critical. You can only afford to take calculated risk with two kids.
Best of luck.

Thank you for the advice.

Sir,I will advice you stay with your job for now, moreover u are still working when u cultivate 2acers of cassava, also u find time out of no time to prepared d tomatoes bed and other running. Pls don't quite ur job for now.u can also use ur salaries to finance ur farm as well. Keep hustling the two till u are there. Agronomist Femi.

femioke14:
Sir,I will advice you stay with your job for now, moreover u are still working when u cultivate 2acers of cassava, also u find time out of no time to prepared d tomatoes bed and other running. Pls don't quite ur job for now.u can also use ur salaries to finance ur farm as well. Keep hustling the two till u are there. Agronomist Femi.

Thank you very much for the advice.

Benyfil:


Thank you very much for the advice.

My pleasure Bro.

I also left my high paying job last year to go into farming. And I can tell you it is not funny.
But in my case I have no regrets no matter what I face, because the job was killing me. I work from 7am to 8pm including most weekends. They pay was fantastic but I was loosing out on life.

olaeffect:


My pleasure Bro.

I also left my high paying job last year to go into farming. And I can tell you it is not funny.
But in my case I have no regrets no matter what I face, because the job was killing me. I work from 7am to 8pm including most weekends. They pay was fantastic but I was loosing out on life.

One of my reasons exactly. I wake up 5am and get home 8pm (Mon-Fri). But in my case, the job is not high paying, I run all my expenses on loan, at the end of the day, my take home pay is 39k. I spend an average of 1k per day (eating and transportation to work), thats about 22k per month. I only use my car once in a while. If I remove that from the 39k take home pay, it remains 17k (which is not even enough to care for the family talk less of saving). Been living on the edge of management and if any sudden expectation comes, I would have to seek for loan again, which continues the cycle and this is the 10th year at work. If the management decides to call it quit, that would spell trouble.

My wife supports a lot, but a man got to be a man. right?

All the same, thanks bro.

A lot of people advise that you stay in your job but came short of why you should.

From your story, you will need to ask yourself some few questions.


Have you developed the requisite discipline to manage a business on your own? If you have not manage your current work and finances very well, don't think you will wake up one day and magically do it. You will be in for a pleasant surprise.

Do you have the necessary cushion to absorb any shock in case of a disaster to your farms?
The disaster could be flood, fulani herdmen lunching on your tomatos and theft among many things that can rear it's head.


Have you prepared for the test you will get from your wife? Women are different, but trust me they share some common traits. One of this trait is to test their man ability to sustain a family. The moment she knows you are out of job, expect a lot of demand that will make you think "Why are all these demands coming now that I am out of work". Trust me, she will test your limit. Are you ready?


If disaster hit the family, you will be on your own. If you are working, at least you are able to fall back to someone for help in loans or something. No one will like to borrow you anything if all you have is your new business that could go bunk anytime, but if they know you work and earn 10K Naira monthly, they can have something to hold on to.

There is time for standing on your own, for now work and pay your dues and all your labour will never be in vain. Patience.

grpCaptain:
A lot of people advise that you stay in your job but came short of why you should.

From your story, you will need to ask yourself some few questions.


Have you developed the requisite discipline to manage a business on your own? If you have not manage your current work and finances very well, don't think you will wake up one day and magically do it. You will be in for a pleasant surprise.

Do you have the necessary cushion to absorb any shock in case of a disaster to your farms?
The disaster could be flood, fulani herdmen lunching on your tomatos and theft among many things that can rear it's head.


Have you prepared for the test you will get from your wife? Women are different, but trust me they share some common traits. One of this trait is to test their man ability to sustain a family. The moment she knows you are out of job, expect a lot of demand that will make you think "Why are all these demands coming now that I am out of work". Trust me, she will test your limit. Are you ready?


If disaster hit the family, you will be on your own. If you are working, at least you are able to fall back to someone for help in loans or something. No one will like to borrow you anything if all you have is your new business that could go bunk anytime, but if they know you work and earn 10K Naira monthly, they can have something to hold on to.

There is time for standing on your own, for now work and pay your dues and all your labour will never be in vain. Patience.

Very detailed on your advice. Thanks a bunch.

For the first question. Though I have a barbing salon but the monthly income is really meager. I also run a website design business but it's not really flourishing at the moment.

Regarding the shock, I wouldn't know if you are talking in terms of financies. If that would be the case, I think I have something that could last me for sometime.

For the wife aspect, she is very supportive and one of a kind. That's just the least I can say about her. It's a joint family decision and we are working towards it's.

I really appreciate your comment, I have benefited a thing or two from it. Thanks bro

I think that you must have crunched the numbers before considering leaving the job. If the job takes a lot of your time and also ends up giving you less amount of money after you deduct your expenses, then it will be reasonable to go into your farming full-time.

However you must take the business as a business you must devote it plan to devote as much time if not more than what you did at your job you must also plan for expansion remember this is your business.

If the current job gives you other benefits such as health insurance, retirement ,pension and things like that then you really need to redo your numbers. Don't be afraid. I pray that you succeed.

Farming tomato can be very delicate.

Pests, unsuitable climate, unpredictable yield, irregular income, low price for much of the year etc

I suggest you do at least 2 successive cropping to get some
practical understanding before quitting your job. Jethro's thread is not enough preparation.

ayinba1:
I think that you must have crunched the numbers before considering leaving the job. If the job takes a lot of your time and also ends up giving you less amount of money after you deduct your expenses, then it will be reasonable to go into your farming full-time.

However you must take the business as a business you must devote it plan to devote as much time if not more than what you did at your job you must also plan for expansion remember this is your business.

If the current job gives you other benefits such as health insurance, retirement ,pension and things like that then you really need to redo your numbers. Don't be afraid. I pray that you succeed.

Yet another insight.
Thanks a bunch and amen to the prayer. Much Appreciated.

Other than health insurance, nothing more comes in from the company.

DeLaRue:
Farming tomato can be very delicate.

Pests, unsuitable climate, unpredictable yield, irregular income, low price for much of the year etc

I suggest you do at least 2 successive cropping to get some
practical understanding before quitting your job. Jethro's thread is not enough preparation.

Yea, it's very delicate. My continuous research and readings says it all.

I am putting your advice into strong consideration regarding the various issues surrounding tomato farming.

Thanks for your time and advice.

olaeffect:
Hmmm. I will strongly advice you remain on your job for a while till you test run your tomatoes harvest.
Farming is very lucrative but it does not give constant cash flow like salary.
You however did not mention your wife's earning capacity. If she earns salary too, then you can afford to quit your job while she augment for any shortfall in the family income.
You mentioned 2 children and that is very critical. You can only afford to take calculated risk with two kids.
Best of luck.

Well said.....in as much as farming bring good cash, Bro as a farmer there are times you are waiting for your produce to mature.....we call it incubation period or waiting period. At this period yu can be as broke as church rat especially if you do not have alternive income to cover up for this period......hold on to the job and do the farming part time till you are able to balance. The progress report of your tomatoes farm will tell if it time to resign your job or forget about farming....it logical
Good luck

Ok from your cassava farm one hecter should gave u 25-30tones current market price 8000, Hmmm keep your job sir, u can employ people to work on it then then u can always check on the farm at weekdays, then during harvest u can take leave etc, u can keep taking loan and keep buying land for ur farm sir maybe for 5 years, when u get something like 10hecters u can leave ur work. My advice sir

You can combine both Agriculture or farming it has so many challenges especially tomatoes except you doing green house remember tuta absoluta.

Keep your job for now until you master the art of farming. Let people run the farm for you or spend your weekends in farm. I have a great feeling that, you will be great.

U even get job and u wan quit

Follow ur passion......................


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How about employing people on your farm ?

Continue your job and watch your tomatoes farm grow a little before quitting finally. Wait. You get perspective when you wait. all the best! I am also considering going back to my village to start mechanized farming.

Why not do the both

Ok

I need to really manage my finances more. The things I read on here seems incredible.

Everyone is telling the op not to quit his job, that's what the modern days of slavery call White collar job does to one. it's f your mentality up, it stopped you from taking a risk and break out of your "Circle-Chain" call salary.
Sometimes in life, trying to kill 2 birds with one stone can be disastrous. Sir, if you wanna quit your job, please do. I believe before you might have created this thread you must have done your homework properly.
I don't wanna type epistle about this, but all I will say is... if your current job is slowing you down or interfering with your farming dream... quit and channel all your energy into it. Remember life's all about risk.


"If you can risk it, you can achieve it" offpoint 2018

What both Olaeffect and Femioke14 advised you, would have been the same advice I have for you.. Try and make sure you manage the two at dis moment. The idea of quitting might come later but definitely not now.

Best of Lucks brother..

I EARN OVER 250K IN A MONTHS AND HAVE MY SIDE RUNS TOO. INFACT MY SIDE RUNS DEY GIVE ME TWICE OF MY SALARY SOMETIMES.BUT I STILL DEY JOB. JUST BE CALM,DO YOUR FARM AND YOUR WORK SAME TIME

This is why I am a personal advocate of freelance work, which I got into in 2009 and I have had absolutely no regrets. OP should think about this seriously. Get a new skill, quit that job and use your new skill to eat. What is 59K in today's Nigeria for a family man? Your kids are growing: even university education in our deadbeat universities is becoming more expensive as schools are now pushing fees into the hundreds of thousands (my first year fees was N110; shows how far we have come).

You cannot work on 59k forever. My advice to you is as follows:

a) Tomatoes are a volatile crop, and 1 hectare of land is small. Your first foray should be to test the waters, so you still need to keep your 59k job for now.

b) Hit YouTube and pick up a new IT-based skill. Give yourself 3-6 months to learn it. Then take your new skills to the global market, by which time you need to give yourself an extra 2 months to exit your 59K job, by which time you shoul easily have started making at least $300 - $500 a month. EASILY! So if you start now, you should be quitting that job by June next year.

c) Hone your farm skills and take your new found money to expand your land base.

This is my advice.

Remain on your job for now while doing the farm work pending when you yield can sustain you and your family