I have come across many people who are eager to venture into one or the other mode of farming, but are limited by start-up capital. Others have completely given up on ever owning an agribusiness. This is indeed a sad state of affairs. 

Sad, because limited start-up capital should not prevent anyone from starting up in the agricultural sector. Yes, you can start an agribusiness with limited scraped-together funds from your piggy bank. Read that again and believe it.

There are numerous ventures that require little to almost no start-up capital that any aspiring farmer can turn to. It’s simple, you start with something that requires little funding, grow it and save enough funds to kick off your big dream venture. We all love the lure of owning and driving a Mercedes Benz – the engineering marvel of Munich that it is. 

But we all won’t be owning German automobiles at the same time. You would need to start off with a Citi Golf – which is yet another masterpiece in its own right – before getting to the ‘Merc’. There, if you love cars, you have the picture. 

In practical terms, start off with ventures such as poultry farming which can be practised in little space, is less labour intensive and has a high growth rate compared to many other agriculture ventures of our time. Even when starting the poultry enterprise, buy a few birds, build a small holding at first, and utilise home-grown feeds as opposed to costly commercial feeds. The idea is to keep overheads as low as possible and instead allow for the business to reach maturity so it could start bearing fruit.

Even if you intend to venture into animal farming – which by nature needs a huge capital investment – you can always start small so as to keep the capital input low. Your idea might be to farm with quality stud cattle, which is a great form of agribusiness. But if capital is a problem, perhaps you need to start off with commercial cattle which you can grow in numbers in order to afford the elite beasts you desire. 

As you can see with the above examples, the common thread is always starting small. But ‘starting small’ does not only mean numbers, but most possibly even markets. Instead of venturing out to larger markets for your products which might require that you fork out more in capital to access such markets, it is best to target local markets that are close to you. This will reduce your transport cost dramatically and help accelerate your potential to reach your dream.

After all is said and done, consider small businesses as a set up to larger enterprises. Find innovative ways of doing more with less. The main consideration is to remain focused on your vision, despite starting small.  Never sacrifice or compromise on quality. That is all it is about; the deliverance of good quality to your customers which will set your name on the right path. 

- tjatindi@gmail.com