Good day nairalanders,

I have been looking to share my experience and lessons learnt over the years but scarce time coupled with a lot of farm activities have been the one standing inbetween my goals.

I will be straight to the point here and share a couple of my experience on the major Reasons farm.projects fails.

I have had couple of failure experience and this I am going to share here for others to learn.

I am sure this thread will add value and benefit those that want to invest in agriculture,those that already investing/invested,farm managers,absentee farmers etc.

Assuming that you want to invest or you are an absentee farmers that wants to own a farm as an alternative source of revenue.

First,You have to gather knowledge (both theoretical and practical one)
That means,you should go for practical training on the area you want to invest in.

Are you going to create time to be on the field and supervise/manage your farm project or you are going to get someone to directly manage it.


If you are going to get someone to manage it,
Do your due diligence.
Did the person has experience and the know-how to supervise and manage your farm?

If yes,then you can go ahead to engage him/her.

Now,this is the important point you should note and follow.

Make sure you have a properly signed agreement stating what's expected of the farm manager and what's expected of you as the owner of the farm.

Never jump this process if you don't want to tell stories that touch.

This save you (the investor/absentee farmers) and the manager lot of stress and,time in your business relationship.

Majority of stories about scam being told here is because of expectation of one or both parties not been met due to failure of both parties to have a draft agreement stating each party expectation.


Also,failure of one or both party to fulfil his obligation which have adverse effect on the success of the farm.

Having a proper management document will reduce stories that touch the heart and prevent headache for both parties.

I will be sharing few out of the many experiences which I believe will help you a lot.
Many of my business partners cum friends and few others know few of the stories.
Nevertheless,I will still share it and many more for those who don't know.

Before I forget,you also need to have a representative or you must be visiting the farm once in two weeks or once in a month as the case maybe.

Do not leave the management of the farm with the farm manager 100%.
See him/her as a business partner where you can discuss/share ideas together on how to move the farm business together.

Following

Lesgupnigeria:


Do not leave the management of the farm with the farm manager 100%.

Sounds like you are saying, do not be an absentee farmer, which is very good advice.

Few years ago, an incident happen on this platform,one of my business partner posted that I was trying to defraud him because the revenue that was realised on the farm was below his expectation after which he fail to fulfil his own part.

Little errors were made by both parties and that's the reason for creating this thread so for others to learn for better business relationship and brighten their chance of success in their farming endeavour.

I will not want to go in-depth into.the details to bring up old matter but to learn few lessons.
He is my brother now and the relationship is still strong.

On the positive side,it gave me free publicity and I enjoyed it.

I remember getting a lot of calls,emails,WhatsApp messages from known and unknown persons , many people wanting to know,does lesgup have farm or he doesnot, for few weeks number of farm visits were on the high side and in the process many got involved in agriculture.


On the other hand, I was able to see clearly my silent enemies looking out for their downfall
I even hear that a group was created and it was decided that they will keep posting on my thread that i am a scammer so that people will not be able to do business with me again....I lol because it was just an exercise in futility.

The incidence taught me that
"No matter the good you are doing,you will always have enemies"

That aside;
You cannot leave your farm and allow weeds to overtake it or you didnot pay for labourers to weed,fertile at the right time and expecting good yield and at the end you put the responsibility for the lack of good yield from the farm on your farm manager.

This I have seen many times with absentee farmers and the person in charge of supervising/managing their farm

This has resulted into bad business relationship and has cost so many failings in farm projects especially the absentee farmers.

No matter how small your farm is, make sure you insure it for any act of God that might occur.

To be continued

budaatum:

Sounds like you are saying, do not be an absentee farmer, which is very good advice.

I have few farmers who bought farmland on our farm estate for farming.
They always visit the farm once in a week or once in every 2-3 weeks.
They are always absent when farm activities are going on but they communicate frequently with their managers and come to check how the farm is doing every weekend or once in 2-3weeks
They are to a large extent absentee farmers but at the same time know what's going on per time on the farm and not far from the farm as well.

frankyychiji:
Following

Thanks for following.

Lesgupnigeria:


I have few farmers who bought farmland on our farm estate for farming.
They always visit the farm once in a week or once in every 2-3 weeks.
They are always absent when farm activities are going on but they communicate frequently with their managers and come to check how the farm is doing every weekend or once in 2-3weeks
They are to a large extent absentee farmers but at the same time know what's going on per time on the farm and not far from the farm as well.

Absentee farmer is like myself stuck away from my farm for 4 years. Only in my dreams should I expect to reap any crop from my farm, is what I think.

if I get to use 10 bags of 15kg feed for catfish, will I get 150kg when harvesting?

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A lot of issues would have been solved with a concise farm management agreement.

Nevertheless,transparency and openness from both parties is key to the success of the farm projects.

Many years ago,I was managing a cassava plantation,after many months into the project,the owner from no where brought his cousin to take over from the farm.
Lots of decisions were made which I was sideline,I had to let go and move on.

Bringing your close relation or family into your farm projects is not the issue but by communicating regularly,being open and transparent with the farm manager/supervisor on your every move will increase the success level of the farm.


There was also an incidence of someone who bought farmland on our farm estate who after setting up his farm keep bringing different people to manage his farm.
I was told that his mum is the one in charge now.
How will you have a successful farm.projects doing that?

Get a capable hand,design agreement stating what's expected from both parties,communicate regularly rubbing minds/ideas together and you will see a huge positive impact on your farm projects.

Good morning

One of the reason for failure is poor communication

There is need to have a timeline where both the supervisor/manager communicates with each other on the progress made on the farm with a scheduled visit once in a while from the owner or the representative of the owner to the farm.

This stimulate openess and transprency on the parts of both parties involved.

Once there is communication gap,there is bound to be issue of distrust,so make sure that there are timelines for 2 way communication and scheduled farm.visit

Thanks lesgupnigeria for your exposition, this is a key information for all of us who are farmers.

Chinedumagnus05:
Thanks lesgupnigeria for your exposition, this is a key information for all of us who are farmers.

You are welcome

Associated reasons why most farms fail could be due to the ignorance of farm owners equating internet knowledge with the practical facts on our farms.

Most farm owners, apart from being absentee farmers, are also internet farmers. They extrapolate results from research institutes, in deducing their own resuls and expectations.

However, the research institutes operate on the most ideal sutuations, environments and make use of the best farm inputs available.

They aren't out for any profit.

The research institutes use experimental lands that are mainly never more than an acre, but they deduce hypothetical results on 100 hectares and above, by extrapolating their results.

The absentee farmer cum owners all rely on these hypothetical results from these researchers to adjudge the results expected from their farms, thus placing their farm managers on the path of failure.

Can the research institutes get the same yield they assumed from one acre of operation in 300 acres of practical farming without extrapolations?

Internet farming and practical agriculture aren't on same level. Nigeria is a place wherein a non-farmer can tell a real farmer what to expect as yields, without any knowledge of the rudiments of farming and agricultural practices.

Over-reliance on hypothetical results has caused a lot of failures and mistrusts between farm managers and their ill-informed farm owners.

PLEASE INVESTMENTS IN AGRICULTURE SHOULD BE INCLUSIVE OF THE BASIC KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED.

Associated reasons why most farms fail could be due to the ignorance of farm owners equating internet knowledge with the practical facts on our farms.

Most farm owners, apart from being absentee farmers, are also internet farmers. They extrapolate results from research institutes, in deducing their own results and expectations.

However, the research institutes operate on the most ideal sutuations, environments and make use of the best farm inputs available.

They aren't out for any profit.

The research institutes use experimental lands that are mainly never more than an acre, but they deduce hypothetical results on 100 hectares and above, by extrapolating their results.

The absentee farmer cum owners all rely on these hypothetical results from these researchers to adjudge the results expected from their farms, thus placing their farm managers on the path of failure.

Can the research institutes get the same yield they assumed from one acre of operation in 300 acres of practical farming without extrapolations?

Internet farming and practical agriculture aren't on same level. Nigeria is a place wherein a non-farmer can tell a real farmer what to expect as yields, without any knowledge of the rudiments of farming and agricultural practices.

Over-reliance on hypothetical results has caused a lot of failures and mistrusts between farm managers and their ill-informed farm owners.

PLEASE INVESTMENTS IN AGRICULTURE SHOULD BE INCLUSIVE OF THE BASIC KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED.

GCIT:
Associated reasons why most farms fail could be due to the ignorance of farm owners equating internet knowledge with the practical facts on our farms.

Most farm owners, apart from being absentee farmers, are also internet farmers. They extrapolate results from research institutes, in deducing their own resuls and expectations.

However, the research institutes operate on the most ideal sutuations, environments and make use of the best farm inputs available.

They aren't out for any profit.

The research institutes use experimental lands that are mainly never more than an acre, but they deduce hypothetical results on 100 hectares and above, by extrapolating their results.

The absentee farmer cum owners all rely on these hypothetical results from these researchers to adjudge the results expected from their farms, thus placing their farm managers on the path of failure.

Can the research institutes get the same yield they assumed from one acre of operation in 300 acres of practical farming without extrapolations?

Internet farming and practical agriculture aren't on same level. Nigeria is a place wherein a non-farmer can tell a real farmer what to expect as yields, without any knowledge of the rudiments of farming and agricultural practices.

Over-reliance on hypothetical results has caused a lot of failures and mistrusts between farm managers and their ill-informed farm owners.

PLEASE INVESTMENTS IN AGRICULTURE SHOULD BE INCLUSIVE OF THE BASIC KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED.

Rightly stated.
Not far from the truth.
God bless

nice info