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1. Know the
agricultural market prices of food items from different towns or countries
(supply + demand). Know what people want and supply it. Buy the food items from
places where it is sold cheaply and sell it in places where the food items are
demanded highly, thus sold more expensively.
2. Solve farmers’
problems. For instance, many farmers cannot tell fake seeds from genuine high
production seeds. Provide the best seeds, pesticides and insecticides.
3. Train farmers
in 5 skills required to run a successful agricultural business. The 5 skills
that each farmer needs are: Group management, savings and financial management,
basic business and marketing, technology and innovation, natural resource
management for sustainable production.
4. Buy raw
produce from farmers and add value to it. For instance buying ripe bananas,
oranges, tomatoes; using the solar fruit drying process, packing and selling
them off in supermarkets at higher prices than what the ripe fruits cost.
5. Set up Cereal
bank to store food items. Buy food in seasons of plenty, store it in a food
store or cereal bank and sell it off the community at a profit in times of
scarcity. Maize, rice, beans, wheat, cassava are often the most demanded for
items during dry seasons.
6. Sell genuine
agricultural tools and equipment at affordable rates or on hire purchase
scheme. Much of the agricultural machinery is very expensive making many
farmers unable to afford them. Selling off genuine tools on a hire purchase
scheme to farmers or farmer groups allows more farmers to afford and improve
food production.
7. Offer to help
farmers with managing their ICT matters (websites, online presence, SMS,
proposals etc.). Do not ask for money upfront but have a contract with them
that you take a 50% share for any proceeds from your work. Many farmers are
ignorant on how information communication technologies (ICTs) can improve
production and success of their agricultural farms. They will only be
interested and willing to spend money on it if the ICTs start producing
results.
8. Connect
farmers with local and markets abroad. Buying at lower prices and exporting the
produce abroad in large quantities. This can be flowers or food items all
nicely packed ready to be bought off supermarket shelves.
9. Make a mobile
phone App that helps farmers improve production. For instance, a mobile phone
application that warns farmers about when the next rainy or dry season is going
to be or any other related weather information that may affect their farm
produce. The app should work with ordinary phones as well smartphones.
10. Provide a truck
to transport farmers’ products from their villages to the towns and share the
profits. Most rural farmers sell their produce so cheaply because they have no
means to transport it off to towns where they would get paid much more than
what the community where they live offers.
This is where
we will be ending our discussion for today.
Do you have any questions or other forms of
contributions, kindly use the comment section below for all your contributions.
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