In our quests to make it as farmers and prove our salt’s worth, we may stumble and fall; it is perfectly normal. Mind you, the quest is no longer just about becoming a farmer, it is now all about ‘agripreunership’.
It is about elevating farming to levels of business. Days of farming for pride are now as old as the sun itself. You now need to get with the system and not only run with the wolves, but return leading the pack yourself!
In project management, they call it teething problems. If you ever had to raise a baby, you will know how difficult a stage it is for the parents when the baby starts teething. Such is the world of farming too. You need to constantly dust yourself up and take to the fields or kraal again and again.
But while it is normal to encounter this stage, there are ways we can avoid some things that may set us back in our quest to be agripreneurs. As novice farmers, we often tend to overlook some of these things and they often than not cause our downfall.
Learn to diversify within the farming sector. You could start with livestock, add some chickens then rationalise adding pigs and even geese to the mix! Why not? Most importantly, start with the market in mind.
Another shortfall has been trying to emulate other farmers’ successes without understanding why they’re successful and whether it can be replicated.
Always study the model well before committing. I have seen many farmers, starry eyed, rushing back to their original farming mode. So if you’re going to set out to replicate some of that success, understand you’ll need scale too, and that also means not being distracted by too many farming enterprises.
One other reason small farmers fail is that many make marketing an afterthought. And they make two big mistakes in this regard. First, they simply don’t prioritise marketing until they have a product to sell and they fail to understand how critical it is to build a strong brand for their farm. And, as I said in previous columns, the time to start marketing your farm is before you start farming. Spread the word way ahead of time.
The second mistake related to marketing is that when they do start marketing, their ideology gets in the way. They get so caught up in all their personal beliefs and values that they let that drive their marketing. You know what I’m talking about.
Imagine if the world’s great marketers, such as Apple did that. Instead of showing you all the amazing things their products can do for you and that you can do with them – that they talked only about how you’ll have dropped calls with other solutions. Or you’ll have to carry a separate camera and that’s a hassle. Or that you’ll need a paper map instead of their GPS.
They don’t hammer on that stuff. They show you the life you can have – the joy and convenience you can have, if you buy their products.
Instead of emphasising what’s wrong with the world, focus on why you farm the way you do and the joy, health and connection your customers can realise if they support you.
Show them with pictures, tell them with emotive, positive words. Because most farmers aren’t doing this. The good news is that if you can market positively, with a vision for positive solutions and change, it’ll be music to people’s ears, and it will differentiate you as a farmer.