CAN EVERY NIGERIAN BE A FARMER ?

It takes a lot of commitment to be involved in the process of farming as a business. The Government is trying its best to ensure the enabling environment is created for Agro-preneurs to thrive. The BIG QUESTION still remains is agriculture a viable business? Can anyone make a living from agriculture and still have enough to invest? Can it grow to become a conglomerate and a "blue chip" company. This and many more are questions asked by young individuals who are advised to pick up farming as a means of entrepreneurship and self employment.

1. Its not a means to an end: The notion created is that if you cannot get a job then go into farming. This is out rightly a wrong reason to go into farming because when  challenges comes, it could be difficult to stand firm. You need to make a clear decision that you want to invest in farming, either full time or part- time, that's when you get to reap the benefits and also stay put to overcome the challenges.
2. It is a steady stream of income:There is no guarantee that you would make a whole lot of money in your first propagation, but you can be rest assured the income would flow in trickles and make a huge stream of income overtime. The idea of a quick and fat flow of income is a mirage with agriculture, as it is a venture that entails continuity. You do not just plant crops and go to bed and expect to make profit when they are harvested and then that's all. You have to ensure you guard against all possible risks such as weeds, pest, pilfering, poor irrigation etc. Once you can guard against all these you are definitely going to make income.
3. The challenges can be mitigated against: One of the major challenge in the present day economy is not improved variety of seedlings, but rather the availability of regular supply of organic and inorganic manure. Also the necessary availability and usage of basic farm implements for commercial farming. As most of the farming practises are in small scale and usually cant stand the test of time. Weeds, pilfering, pest control, etc all these can be guarded against, but the lack of mini tractors like ploughs, harrows, planters, ridgers are the major challenges.

I encourage like minds to come together and invest as a group in farming, this way the real essence of farming been a commercial venture with positive growth to the economy can be achieved.