Business Activity: Agro Allied Businesses and Factors to Consider before Starting One by @swaylee

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Greetings Everyone,
It's been a little while since I've made a post but I'm back right now. Today we would be focusing on an underrated or majorly overlooked sector of an economy and a very salient one at that. The Agricultural Sector is one which accounts for all the natural food products which we feed on as humans and this covers both animal rearing and crop growth. In this post, we would be looking at Mechanized cash crop farming and how to maintain and nurture such a business. Let's have a look. Shall we?

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About The Business

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This business involves making use of machines and scientific implements to ensure large scale planting of crops and to hasten their growth to provide and sell food and cash crops to the retailers, wholesaler and final consumers. This may also include animal husbandry but I would be focusing on the plant side of Agriculture today. Now there are many successful farmers and not just successful but they are making a huge impact on the farming industry and this is due to the fact that they follow the right procedures and they are well versed and experienced in the Agricultural field. The factors below are for people considering this as a business idea and who would love to have a basis on where to begin from.

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Availability of Land

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Now as we all know, farming takes place on land and without land, we wouldn't be able to plant crops. As a potential farmer, there are two possible options right here. It is either you go to the government and apply for temporary land use or you rent that of a friend whose is not in use, that way you might end up not having to pay for the rent. The second option is to buy your own land, this is a very great option because land is an asset that appreciates in value no matter the condition. You would have to endeavor that the land is huge enough to handle a large number of crops.

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Knowledge/ Experience of crops

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When I say crops here, I don't just mean any kind of crops but the ones you have chosen to grow as the farmer. The conditions that are needed to boost their growth, the diseases associated with them, the kind of insects that target them and how to curb all this. These are just some of the knowledge you would have to know about the crops. Some crops are targeted by certain insect pests and a good farmer would need to know how to curb these insects without harming the plant.

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The Mechanized Instruments to be used and how to get them

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For those who started the post from the beginning, you would observe that I am not talking about small scale farming but large scale farming using machinery so depending on the crops you want to grow, you would need to know the kind of machines to use like plough, tractors and so on then you also need to know the kind of fertilizer to use and how often to apply them. Ofcourse none of these are free so you either buy them with your money or lend and buy. In some countries, some NGOs specialize in assisting farmers to raise their crop production and crop yield so you can appeal to these organizations and they could lend a helping hand.

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The Kind Of Farming that suits you

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In high school, we often hear of kinds of farming, ways by which farmers avoid erosion and so on so it's no news to us that the farming methods carried out matter alot. Methods like crop rotation, mixed crop farming, bush fallowing, terracing, agro forestry should be used. For example terracing which is a practice of making the land slopy and in like a step step pattern with channels through it to avoid erosion. This goes a long way to help crops as rain comes and keeps Washing away the surface of the soil which could also wash away our seeds before they start germinating.

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Closeness to markets and Water

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A farmer's market place in this context is a place where farmers come to sell their products in large scale to wholesalers or people who want to use it as raw materials in producing other goods. A farmer needs to be close to a river or stream where he or she could get a large supply of water for their crops and this helps during the rainy seasons or times of drought. The farm land or the farmer's place of work needs to be closer to the farmer's market where they can easily go and sell their produce. Hiring transportation especially in places with bad roads over long distances would cost the farmer a large amount of money so it would be advisable to stay within a certain distance to avoid extra costs.

That's all for today and thanks for reading.

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Post Name:	Business Activity: Agro Allied Businesses and Factors to Consider before Starting One by @swaylee
Owner's name :	@swaylee
Business Address	Barnawa, Kaduna, Nigeria
About us	Link