₦airaland Forum

Very recently, I have been given a lot of titles that I don't understand, at best. Prof, Guru, winch, wizard e.t.c I have shared stories of my conquests in cucumber farming, my explorations, my victories but it's time to hear of my Defeat, the one dent in my spotless and stainless cucumber C.V (if I may call it that).

I had a bad run-in in my cucumber business of recent and I want to share, so that some people can learn, and also see that I am by no means a "winch". Lol

You all remember my farm in Ogbomosho I put up for investment? well, if you don't go and read... https://www.nairaland.com/2199401/invest-20-hectare-watermelon-cucumber

That has been the most exciting project I have ever handled. why exciting? because I love the challenge that came with managing a farm of that size, with so much at stake.

Well, here is a brief account of how it all went down, so far

bobbysaxy. Beautiful dogs, hope you are having fun there. I really love the french mastiff. . ehe! how far your caucasian na? https://www.nairaland.com/2434601/just-imported-male-caucasian-puppy I am dying to see pics of the monster now

This is a very powerful Idea. if you organise it well, it will be very beautiful and profitable for you and all involved (farmer and consumer). I go dey pray for you.

I am loving this @akanbi2k. It's beautiful and oozes of excellence. we need more of you in Nigeria.

Kalusam:
Lucrativeness of farming has been promoted by several bloggers, newspapers and "Agribusiness Consultants", so much that everyone, young and old, rich and poor, men and women are trooping towards it, in many cases blindly. This interest in farming is a good sign, but the concerns of what really drives young people towards farming remain. Below are 5 things to posses before going all out on agriculture in order to reap the much mentioned success in the sector.
1. Information/knowledge. How much knowledge about farming do you possess. Like any other profession, farming requires expertise, in fact it requires a great deal of expertise because of the dynamic aspects of agriculture. Information such as weather patterns, what crop to farm on what soil and when and how do one get the best market, are very important. If you are truly keen on going into farming, roll up your sleeves and learn first.
2. Passion. How much do you want to farm? What motivates you to become a farmer. Many young people are lured into the trade with the glossy stories of success in the media without acknowledging the potentially disastrous risks involved. If you are not so much into it, the returns wont be too much into you either. Without passion, you may totally lose interest and miss out of the opportunities in the Agribusiness sector after a first failed attempt.
3. Capital. Young people interested in farming encounter their first hurdle in terms of capital. This is normal. Remedy for this can be found in the many agricultural support loans being given out by organizations, banks and even the government. The most important thing is the information on how to access these financial services. However, I personally advise you make some money first from other sectors before venturing into farming, or if you have friends and family who will be ready to invest in you and your dreams then you are good to go!
4. Total Commitment. There is a new crop of young farmers who engage in farming “via proxy”, mobile phone farming or absentee farming. From my personal experience, this does not work at all. Even if you have a good farm manager, there a number of things that will go wrong without your actual presence. For greater rewards in farming, you need to be on site. If you are very busy, I advise you start out a small farm near your house, even on concrete floors you can grow in bags or plastic containers.
5. Persistence. You are more likely to be disappointed by your farm in the beginning. This is called the learning period and giving up should not be an option. Wrap the failures under the folder of experience and use it to become better. It is important to expect misfortunes and be ready for them. Just remember NEVER give up, even if you fail several times in your farming attempt despite receiving previous training know one thing...you are building yourself up for greater things, when other farmers see dangers you will see opportunities, those periods you will be the only one taking to the market and make good profit.

I love this. As much as it's exciting to note that Nigerians are now looking in the way of Agric. It's also key to apprciate that Agric is in no way a get rich quick scheme.

3 days to go. It's coming. The free webinar on seedless watermelon farming. We aspire for greatness

Hi, I received delivery of a new specie of seedless watermelon for our farm in Ogbomosho. It was a bit excessive, more than the quantity I would naturally want to test-run with. So, we will be planting the ones we can, and the remaining are stuck in my shelf.

So, I put a call through to my watermelon boss @soloxam, and told him we should collaborate and train people on watermelon farming - the seedless way. Due to my busy schedule, am not sure we can do a physical training. So I thought, let's do a webinar! A webinar it is!

Okay... I have a training to attend, when I'm back we continue.

Are you ready for the seedless watermelon webinar? I know I'm ready

oyediranniyi:
Oh I missed out, when is the next investment phase coming up, or
can I still be squeezed into this!. 08063009334

Phase 1 is almost done and dusted! Investors are getting ready for pay out. Once phase 1 investors are paid out, phase 2 will commence.

Hello guys, just came in now to see this. . @coollabman. True to your words, the rain had caused a lot of hindrance at the initial stage. and we were not able to get the required quantity of water from the borehole guys. but we are developing an annex close to a dam, still in ogbomosho. and the project is moving great and still on course.
we have had our hands full on this one but the first thing you learn as a farmer is to always have a plan B.

The challenges were expected and we are doing great...

The annex is currently still very much under development, we have a target and we are sure going to meet up to it. That's the beauty of farming.

@Seun, as much as I'll love the thread on frontpage, I'll love it to be a lot later. after we have achieved a certain level of success.
But I promise to get one of my team members start updating pics as soon as possible. thanks for the support guys.

Please at what month can my dog start taking the Gorilla max? Does it help them add height? Because I have a dog I want to grow taller

Fhemmmy:

Fhemmmy:

can we talk? I need your help on an issue. Will e-mail you privately

GIVING AGRIC A TRIAL

Okay, something interesting happened today at our group meeting. One of our members was sharing his success story from vegetables and all the mistakes he made at the time and losses he incurred, and how he has been able to overcome and is looking forward to expand his business. That's the kind of story we want to be sharing. Those are the kind of testimonies that lifts the spirit of others.

So, after the story, another member in his congratulatory speech, said, he has decided to give Agric a trial!.

Giving Agric a trial in my opinion is never the best approach to Agric. But then again, that's my opinion. Agribusiness thrives better with those who make it their main business. Agribusiness was never made to be the side chick, even from creation, the 2 sons of Adam and Eve were both farmers! Full time farmers. They both didn't Farming a trial.

Like I earlier stated, your approach to agribusiness can largely determine the result you get. A lot have tried have failed. but few have worked and failed.

If you are just "trying out" agric, there's a high probability of little success. Although there are the rare cases of people who tried agric and got mind-blowing results. But very few people actually practise Agric and fail. No matter how bad the situation. I have always been of the opinion that if you give Agribusiness the same time, dedication and work rate you give your Boss, Agric will pay you more than your salary week in, week out.

Let me stop here, I have an emergency to attend to in one of our farms. Cheers!

olushowunm:
Jasper, nice one. Preach on. I have weeding machine that can weed between rows of most crops. Like tomatoes, cucumber, watermelon, pepper, cassava, maize and others. It will weed at early stages from 0wks to 16wks in most crop. I want to sell it because I have two units.
I noticed that most major problem of farmers starts with controlling weeds in crops which can be thorn in flesh as labour is too slow to make it happen and yield is decreasing due to weed-crop competition. So if you are large farmer you need this machine. Thanks.

contact me on whatsapp sir. Let's talk business

you see, farming is one of the only businesses I know of that having good employees, does not guarantee success. Those employees of yours must build what I call "the owner's passuon".


Good partners can guarantee success. I mean, anyone who partners Jethro2, world1, Kalusam or farmers of that ilk, are guaranteed success at least70% of the time...

If my oga prodeegee at anytime calls me to partner with him on a canine business, because I know what he can do, I'll partner him easily and happily. But, will I on my own open a canine business and employ prodeegee to "manage" it for me? No, I won't. why? success is not guaranteed. in as much as I trust prodeegee's vast knowledge and experience in the canine department, I also need him to bring an "owner's passion" to the business.
because the passion of an employee and an owner or co-owner can never ever be the same. (bros no vex say I carry you do illustration).

and the success of farming is completely dependent on the passion of the "handler".

so, If I am a bank worker or a doctor or a professional in another sector and I am interested in this agric and I want to do it part-time, what do I do?

or the more popular, I have 10million lying dormant and I want to invest it in agric. what do I do? abi what do I plant?

My first instinct will be to reply. "call hotmas911, buy land worth maybe 5million, then drill a borehole, buy a mini tractor, employ labour, buy input. we'll set up the farm for you and you Labour will monitor it.

But, I have had my fair share of experience to know that this system of set up seldom works, especially for vegetables and livestock. This is because when it comes to farming, the key to success in production is not in doing the right thing, but more of what you do when there's crisis. And crisis is more of a blend of what you did and what you didn't do.

So, unless you plan to have a cctv camera installed in the farm, it's not advisable to invest your money in a farm that lacks the presence of either the owner or a representative of the owner's interest.

When I started my 20 hectare cucumber and watermelon farm, I received numerous calls, over a hundred.

Most were calling to invest, others to work with me, while others were calling to come and see how I work my "magic" but only 2 calls impressed me alot.

one was from a man who offered to help sell off my products when I produce them and the 2nd was from a man who wanted to market his irrigation system.
Did I do business with them or am I planning to do with them?? Yes, definitely. This is because they have answered questions I had not even asked. It was impressive and above all, relieving. Not having to go around sourcing for irrigation systems or even having to go to market to sell my products.

"The greatest joy of a farmer is knowing that his products are sold even before harvest"

Please, before I contine, there's a "preach Agric" Whatsapp group. you can catch all the latest news and follow all the latest agribusiness trend there. It's almost the agribusiness stock market, very useful for those with "experience", "work rate" and "work ethic". The group is only active from 8pm-10pm daily. whatsapp me to add you. 08097273034

Remember, "He who controls the market, Controls Everything".

All I am saying is that, we don't all have to be great plantain farmers like world1 or lesgupnigeria. some of us can be ordinary plantain marketers or distributors of input for plantain farming and make almost the same amount if not more money than the farmers.

"He who controls the market, Controls Everything".

Now, we have a plantain village by world1. who has started thinking in the line of marketing the plantains being produced in that village? who is thinking about meeting world1 to supply him with fertilizers or weeding machines or whatever input he needs?

Do we all need to open up plantain farms because we heard it's profitable? or are we not aware there is more money and faster money coming from the supply of such input and marketing of such product

one big business mistake I regret making was refusing to invest in a friend's idea when I had the chance to. All because I really didn't see the "prospect" and it was not exactly "farming".

He had an idea, he used to live in Gambia, and according to him, dried fish was cheap there. he used to buy and resell in Nigeria for a little profit. Along the line, he discovered that there was a lot of wastage there when they dry, because the flakes that off when they pack are being thrown away. And he came to understand that those flakes are used in Nigeria to produce fish meal. So he inquired and found out that if he starts packing those flakes and selling to any of the fish feed producers, he would be making more profit.

so, he brought the idea, and sold it to me, he wanted someone to partner up with him, because for the business to make sense, he needed at least a container load of it. I didn't understand the business so I declined partnering with him. Long story short, he later raised the capital, got a contract to supply about 200 tonnes of that fish meal per week to one of these companies that make feed. the last time I spoke with him, he makes a profit of 20k per tonne. Now, he's an investor in. my business.

Prodeegee:
im going into farming fulltime soon. ill need pros like you to brush me up.
how can i get you on whatsapp

It will be my pleasure, any time you need me bro.

The purpose of this epistle? just read on

I think Agric is a very dynamic sector with so many facets but it is a shame we all a wasting away in one particular facet.

Every dick, tom and harry wants to start a farm. The latest trend being cucumber, watermelon and plantain. There are lot of areas with greater income margin than farming in itself.

And as much as I have been able to harness my own powers in farming, I look forward to people investing in other prominent areas, staring at us with untapped revenue

I was discussing with hotmas911 sometime ago, (we get to see often, he's my Landlord on one of my projects). and he asked me. what could be the reason why people who invest in "farming" and are not on ground in the farm, tend to fail. I told him it's because, they lack experience, and cannot make up for it with work ethic or work rate.

The only way to make up for inexperience, is to be hyper active and extremely hardworking. There's no other way.

Well, I have come to understand that everybody cannot be like me. some neither have the experience or work rate or work ethic to make up for lack of it. and they really, really want to go into agric.

I mean, A bank worker, who has never farmed before and wants to practise agric. falls under this group (I get a lot of calls frpm people like this).

Prodeegee:
welldone brother

oga prodeegee. ftc on my thread... This sounds like good things to come. I am a big fan of yours. admire you alot.

Over the past 6 months that have made up the main part of this year, I have been involved in the sensitization of Nigerians to the benefits and profitability of agriculture.

And like I fondly say, "Leave farming for the farmers, but take agribusiness to the businessmen".

Most times when people talk with me over the phone, they fail to realise that I am a young man, very much in my twenties, but with a very very strong passion for agric.

Indeed, a strong passion, I practice my profession.with so much passion and enthusiasm that you would think I have been doing this for so many years.

But as the case is. what I lack in experience, I make up for in with work ethic

Denn:
Bros...this your 'toasting' na wa.
Thanks

Bros... I have been trying to reach you. We get talk.

I am here, and I am following with keen interest.

agricentral:
@jasper7 why did you stop updating this thread?

Sorry sir, I have been at the very least, extremely busy. I think I'll make out time for the thread soon. I hardly have internet network at my current farm location.

juwoonn:
Hello bro...
Tnx 4 d complement. I'm still very much in touch wt some esp atoyebidaramola .. But akraym betrayed us all..he betrayed d entire thread for a mere N1 Million.

Cc dygeasy, Yungmilio, kelvic1, longfellow02

Oga Juwonn. how things? good to remember the house been a long while. season9 now.
cc Trillioniar. I see you

MizTyna:
How old is he? That's a very big factor

Biggest factor ever. God bless you for ur wisdom.