“It is important to make agriculture ‘cool’ in order to attract more youngsters to the sector.” – Botswana’s Mavis Nduchwa, 33 year old founder of Chabana (Animal Feed) Farms – a grantee of Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP)
The above quote, credited to a successful young Female African Farm CEO accurately captures the important need for African nations to make agribusiness more appealing to younger members of their populations.
Unfortunately, in some countries, like Nigeria, the youths continue to see and hear about farm businesses struggling to stay afloat or closing down e.g. poultry farms affected by scarcity and/or prohibitive prices of key inputs like Maize, Soyabean etc.
We need to create more opportunities for those bold enouch to venture into farm business, to record success stories like that of this young lady!
Read her full story in the interview previewed/linked below…
The new face of farming: youth making agribusiness ‘cool’!
Botswana’s Mavis Nduchwa, 33, owns an animal feed farm that grows grains and legumes
Run a quick Google search on African women making it in business, and you will rarely find a young woman engaged in rural farming. But Mavis Nduchwa has challenged norms by founding and successfully managing a commercial animal feed farm in Botswana.
This Downloadable Audio Podcast Based Training series offers:
(1) best practice pig feeding/general management information
(2) ready-to-use cost-saving ration formulas suitable for all pig classes and other ideas to boost profits.
Title = Ideas from successful pig farmers on how to feed pigs cheaply to boost profits
Format = MP3 Audio recordings + Image Mind Map Based Summary Fact Sheets with tips/notes/examples etc
This is based on my extensive compilation of information published by (and about) successful pig farm business owners in Africa, and beyond, regarding the cost-saving strategies they used to feed their pigs.
It also includes specific details about nutrients needed by different pig clasess (sows, weaners, growers etc), and how to feed them, to achieve daily weight gain etc.
JUSTIFICATION: More farmers are rearing pigs today due to (a) good prices (b) high demand
Key challenge: Feeding costs make up about 70-80% of pig production costs. That’s eating deep into the profits.
Recommended Best Practice Solution (2-parts):
[a] Make your own feeds
[b]. Sell surplus to others (like my Accra based Rabbit Farm CEO does) .
How to do it:
You need feed formulation & best practice production management know-how.
KPIs are crucial tools for monitoring the performance of a business in operational as well as financial terms – and EVERY Farm CEO needs to make smart use of them, to be sure s/he achieves efficiency and profitability repeatedly and consistently.
Without KPIs, you would effectively be working blind – which means you would have no means of accurately determining whether your business is doing well or not, in a reliable and sustainable manner. Definitely not a smart thing to do.
Now, even though this article uses Pig farming as the basis for discussion, the insights it offers can be successfully applied to other livestock farming enterprises. And that’s why I’ve chosen to share it here.
Hope you enjoy reading it.
Tayo
PS: I’m preparing to produce a new Audio Podcast Training (APT) Series designed to educate Farm CEOs about How to develop and use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for records management. It will come with PDF tip sheets and spreadsheets loaded with ready-to-use report generation formats for the KPIs discussed. This is to help those of you who may wish to adopt these powerful tools, but do not know how to go about it. Click here to join my list so you get notified in your email once it goes LIVE.
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The importance of key performance indicators for profitability
Research and development into many areas of commercial pig production has fuelled improvements in productivity and output. Yet, it is still questionable if profitability on farm is increasing, or even being maintained, in-line with these advancements.
Industry experts advise that remaining profitable is imperative, and the way to monitor this is through key performance indicators, which ensures a unit is reaching its full potential through maximum production efficiencies.
This Kenyan blog (screenshot below) features a guest post from a Nigerian expert (Stephen OlorunNi) who makes money online, providing in-demand products and services to farm business owners and those aspiring.
My Farm CEO clients and subscribers will attest to the fact that the ideas he advocates for adoption in this article echo – very loudly – those that I’ve preached via my Cost-Saving Best Practice Farm Business Ideas articles on this blog (www.tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets) for years.
I strongly recommend you read this piece and TAKE action based on what you learn!
5 Ways to Make Money Online as a Farmer
If you follow the world’s economic trends related to our dear continent, Africa, you will observe one significant thing; Africans are getting back to the farm (or we’re being forced back to the farm).
This is good news if you consider the fact that the African continent is importing billions of dollars of food every year. To be specific, we imported food worth $40 billion in the year 2015.
UNIPORT’s Professor of Agricultural Extension Services – Olufemi Martins Adesope – posted a blog today (see screenshot/link below) featuring email notification from www.intechopen.com, that the above mentioned international paper on Organic Farming had been downloaded over 6,000 times.
A long time client, Alhaji Abdul-Azeez Abba, Chairman of Ascas Integrated Agricultural Concepts, informed me during a recent phone conversation that he’d attended the above mentioned event, in his capacity as President of KanJig – and was kind enough to publish a status update with highlights of the event’s theme and other details.
Below, I provide a preview with link leading to his full update, for you to explore.
NB: You can reach out to Abdul for more details, if you so desire, using the contact form on the Ascas Group website at http://www.ascasgroup.com
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The FARM CEO (Issue 94): [ABUJA Conference Highlights – by Abdul-Azeez Abba] Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce, Kaduna Chapter – “Accessing Hidden Opportunities and Linkages in Value Chain for Entereprenuerial Development” | September 13 – 14, 2017
KanJig was represented at the just concluded Conference at Abuja organized by the Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce, Kaduna Chapter with the theme “Accessing Hidden Opportunities and Linkagesin Value Chain for Entereprenuerial Development.
Below: Screenshot of my Guest Post titled “5 Proven Ways to Boost Farm Profits without Raising Prices” on AfricaBusinessCommunities dot com
I got this article accepted and published as a Guest Post (along with 5 others) back in 2012 on AfricaBusinessCommunities dot com and the sister site – Nigeria BusinessCommunities dot com.
Unfortunately, despite my best efforts via email, I was unable to reach the editor of AfricaBusinessCommunities dot com, who had accepted my articles, to inform her about the change in my website URL.
As a result ALL the articles continue to link my name and byline references to the defunct domain (spontaneousdevelopment dot com)
Today, I came across her profile on Twitter and tweeted my new URL at her, with a request that she help update the relevant links in my published pieces.
Below: Titles and URLs to ALL the Guest Posts I have published on AfricaBusinessCommunities dot com and the sister site – Nigeria BusinessCommunities dot com
1. Five Essential Poultry Layer Farm Production Records
2. Five Powerful Tools for Accurately Measuring Your (Farm) Business’ Health
http://nigeriabusinesscommunities.com/features/5-powerful-tools-for-accurately-measuring-your-farm-business-health.html [UPDATE 11th Oct. 2019: This link’s domain is now defunct. Just found out today 11th Oct. 2019]
This short video producced by The European Commeission’s DG Entreprise and Industry, narrates a success story about the EU’s Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme.
I’ve transcribed the entire narrative’s audio to text, ending with a link to watch the video where it is hosted online.
The arrangement is one in which a new entrepreneur (a young Agronomist from the University of Catania, in Italy) is able to join the team of a HOST entrepereneur in a relationship where mutual exchange of knowledge, ideas and expertise then happened in a collaborative atmosphere.
I share this video and the narrative it contains with my primarily African Farm CEOs audience, because I believe what it describes is an example worth emulating.
NB: This PI Squared newsletter will be published weekly, on Mondays, in place of the Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS newsletter, starting from today – 15th February 2016. I’m reinventing my Monday newsletter content and theme, to accommodate my vision of serving the growing audience of serious minded individuals and organizations reaching out to me, with information, education. news and research findings designed to help them do what they do better.
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PII 083: [VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT] Proven Model for Building Collaboration between Graduates of Agriculture and Real Life Farm Businesses [The EU’s Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme]
This short promotional video produced by The European Commission’s DG Enterprise and Industry, narrates a success story about the EU’s Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme.
I’ve transcribed the entire narrative’s audio to text, ending with a link to watch the video where it is hosted online.
The arrangement is one in which a new entrepreneur (a young Agronomist from the University of Catania, in Italy) is able to join the team of a HOST entrepereneur in a relationship where mutual exchange of knowledge, ideas and expertise then happened in a collaborative atmosphere.
I share this video and the narrative it contains with my primarily African Farm CEOs audience, because I believe what it describes is an example worth emulating.
So many farm CEOs out here could benefit from insights that others possess.
But I am particularly keen to see a situation in which, as happenes in this EU project, graduates of Agriculture from African universities will possess such depth of understanding and expertise that alresdy existing farm busineses, like the host entrepreneur in this video, will find useful.,
Right now, most of the products from our higher institutions who emegre with qualifications in Agriculture often have little or no industry relevant knowledge, skills or insights to offer!
Even worse, is the fact that most come into the marketplace with a mental attitude in which they only seek jobs where they can earn salaries with as few responsibilities as possible!
But the possible limitations to making this work in Africa – Nigeria especially – are not limited to the students or new entrepreneurs.
The farm businesses out here are also often not setup in a manner that makes them capable of functioning as HOSTS in the manner described in this video.
Indeed, many of them adopt haphazard procedures and are also often bogged down by the infrastructural limitations in their markets, making the owners so stressed that they might not be open to collaborating in this manner.
Having said the above, it could be argued that if they see the potential benefits to be had, and if there is assurance of decent quality of “New” entrepreneurs to be hosted, Farm CEOs out here would be glad to host them.
Another thing that struck me as noteworthy in this video, is the fact that the “young agronomist” already had a clear idea of the value he wanted to add to the agribusiness marketplace.
He had set his sights on starting a business of his own (unlike many who graduate from our universities looking for jobs).
This was no doubt due to the fact that enrollment in the Erasmus program required preparation of a compehensive real world relevant business plan, that won him a place in the program.
My thinking is that we have a lot of work to do to get our own graduates to be ready and able to prepare such business plans and participate in programs like this.
It goes without saying that a policy of some sort may have to be put in place, if government is to make this kind of program happen.
However i believe a variant of it can also be successfully designed and implemented by Privately Run Farmers Organisations in colloboration with private sector companies, donor agencies/NGOS etc.
I’ll be doing a follow up piece based on this theme, in a separate blog post later on.
For now, I share the above thoughts, and the video transcript, to stimulate your thoughts…towards making our Agriculture work better for us.
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NEW ENTREPRENEUR: Simone GALATI – Catania, Italia
HOST ENTREPRENEUR: Maria Vlachou | Panagiota Vlachou
Narrator:
Maria & Panagiota Vlachou are sisters. Their company “Fereikos Helix” is based in Korinth.
Simone is a young Agronomist from the University of Catania, in Italy)
What has brought threm together is their common interest in the same economic activity: snail farming.
Simone GALATI – Catania, Italia:
“At Fereijos, I carry out analyses on crops, on agricultural economics, and then I also analyse the snail farming market and the international market. I also work on product promotion and organic certification procedures.”
Narrator:
Fereikos Helix founded in 2007, is specialised nm assiting the setting up of organic snail farming activities. Simone will spend 6 months working at the farms.
Maria Vlachou, Host Entrepreneur, Fereikos Helix
“First of all, Simone is Italian. That is very important for us because both my sister and I, and all the employees in teh business, speak Italian.
Secondly, out business works with the international institutue of snail farming, which is based in Italy.
Thirdly, Simone has studied agricultural economics. He has a solid background and could help our business.”
Narrator
Organic farming is enjoying a boom in Europe, and Fereikos’ sales are on the rise. Snail farming is practiced extensively in a natural setting.
Panagiota Vlachou, a translator and interpreter by background. did not originally intend to go into business. But the entrepreneurial spirit caught up with her one day, when she least expected it.
“This idea came about through a joke. Maria was eating snails in Switzerland. and she paid 37 euro for 12 snails. I was impressed by that so, I started doing some research.”
Narrator
Today the company provides consulting know how and development support for farmers interested in this activity.
it’s helped more than 140 snail farms set up a busienss. During his traineeship, Simone has the chance to finalize his soil analysis models and develop production models for when he sets up his own company.
Simone GALATI – Catania
“Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs is definitely important. This collaboration will open new commercial opportunities between my future business and Fereikos, which is a well established business. I am mainly thinking of commercial and promotional opportunities for Sicilian products abroad, throughout the EU.”
Narrator
The host company also has a lot to gain from this programmw. Simone’s expertise in regulations and marketng in the organic sector is a major strength.
“Absolutely. Having Simone in the office helps us to find new and different ways of selling our snails in Italy, but it also improves our research at the European level.”
In order to participate in the Erasmus programme, one has to demonstrate a strong motivation. Simone’s business plan was extremely convincing in this respect.
Simone GALATI – Catania, Italia
“I worked out a Business plan for Erasmus. for the organic farm called ‘Valle delli’Etna. I am planning to set up a teaching farm, incorporartinbg both agricultural and social aspects.The aim will be to promote education about the environment, while producing organic goods and to show others what organic farming is really about. ”
Thanks to this Erasmus for entrepreneurs prgramme, Simone has been fully involved in the activities of Fereikos Helix, including these training sessions for future snail farmers.
Maria Vlachou, Host Entrepreneur, Fereikos Helix
“I think this programme should be promoted more, particulaly in Greece in the midst of its economic crisis. We should be thinking about being outwardly focused. We should not just be thinking on a local level/This programme can help SMEs to grow on the European level.”
Narrator
Taking in a young European entrepreneur is a responsibility, but this Erasmus programme is a real spring board for SMEs, makign them more competitive internationally.
Simone GALATI – Catania
I would recommend it to all young entrepreneurs, because it is a unique opportunuty to grow.
Excel-VB Driven Ration Formulator
1. Click here to learn more about this app – watch demo videos etc
2.Click here to watch a 4 part video in which I demonstrate how to use this app to formulate rations using real life data sent to me by an Algerian PhD student.
Click here to contact me about purchasing this product.
Click here to download a detailed PDF user guide and watch 15 screen shot user guide tutorials of the Monthly Poultry Farm Manager that I now offer Farm CEOs.
Click here to contact me about purchasing this product.
Specialist and Multipreneur (i.e. a highly versatile/multi-skilled entrepreneur), with a bias for delivering Best Practice solutions to Farm Businesses and others.
Since 2002, he has earned multiple streams of income providing individuals and organizations with personal development training and coaching, custom MS Excel-VB solutions, web marketing systems/web hosting, freelance writing services, and best practice extension support services (for farm business owners).
He has delivered talks/papers to audiences in various groups and organizations, including the Centre for Management Development, University of Lagos, Christ Baptist Church, Volunteer Corps, Tantalisers Fast Foods and others.
In May 2012 he was the Guest Speaker at the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development’s Annual Semester Entrepreneurial Lecture at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos.
On 1st April 2013, Tayo (who reads, write and speaks the French language) relocated to Cotonou, Benin Republic to begin slowly traveling across the West African region.
His key purpose is to deliver talks, seminars and workshops on his key areas of focus and interest to interested audiences (Email tayo at tksola dot com for details).
In a previous life, before leaving to become self-employed, Tayo served for seven years (October 1994 to December 2001) as a high performing manager in Guinness Nigeria. He rose from Shift Brewer to Training & Technical Development Manager, and later acted in senior roles as Production Manager and Technical Manager.
In addition to constantly challenging the status quo and influencing positive work changes, he built a reputation for using self-taught spreadsheet programming skills (starting with Lotus 1-2-3, and later moving to Excel Visual Basic) – in his spare time – to develop Automated Spreadsheet Applications to computerize manual report generation processes in the departments he worked. Over four(4) of his applications were adopted for brewery level reporting.
Tayo holds a B.Sc degree in Agricultural Extension Services from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, having graduated top of his class – with Second Class Upper Division honors – in 1992. He is an Associate Member of the UK Institute & Guild of Brewing, a 1997 National Finalist of the Nigerian Institute of Management’s(NIM) Young Managers’ competition, a Certified Psychometric Test Administrator for Psytech UK, innovator of Spontaneous Coaching for Self-Development™ (SCfS-D™), and Founder of the Self-Development Academy (SDAc).
When he’s not amazing clients with his superhuman skills (wink), Tayo works as the creative force behind his Daily Self-Development Nuggets blog – on which he also publishes The Farm CEO Weekly Newspaper (sent via email to paid subscribers) and his Weekly Performance Improvement IDEAS newsletter.
Visit Tayo Solagbade Dot Com, to download over over 10 performance improvement resources to boost your personal and work related productivity.
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[IMPORTANT NOTE:====
On 4th May 2014, Tayo’s 9 year old domain (Spontaneousdevelopment dot com), which hosted his website, was taken over by Aplus.net.
Within a few days however, Tayo used his advanced self-taught web development skills to build a SUPERIOR “reincarnation” of it the website http://www.tayosolagbade.com.
But updates are still ongoing to URLs bearing the old domain name in most of the over 1,000 web pages, and blog posts he’s published.
If you experience any difficulties finding a page or document, email Tayo at tksola dot com.
Like I did with this week’s issue of the Excel Heaven newsletter in which I featured MS Excel Jokes (Hey…“All work and no play makes Sule a dull boy and Sikira a boring gal!”) here’s a compilation of “farm jokes” to get you laughing…
This blog post announces an audio podcast I recorded this past Thursday (7th September) in response to a Facebook comment, by a Farm CEO client about my latest Farm CEO newspaper feature.
In that 93rd newspaper issue (click to view), I’d featured a futuristic vertical farming concept, used to raise vegetables and other crops indoors, with zero sand and 95% less water.
She’d expressed reservations, in a comment posted under my status update, about the cost and other limitations of the technology for use in our part of the world – Nigeria/Africa.
And she was right.
I am familiar with the objections raised. And I know, from discussions with others (and even the second comment on Facebook, by another CEO) that she is not alone.
So, the issues raised are valid…
But, as I explain in the podcast, those who want to MOVE into the future will need to view this issue from an entirely different perspective, if they want to ENJOY the massively profitable benefits to be had!
Below is a screenshot of my Facebook post for The Farm CEO newspaper Issue No: 093…with the comment of the Farm CEO client (posted Tuesday 5th September – same day I posted the preview)…
I recorded my podcast response (see screnshot of audio file time/date stamp in properties window below) on Thursday, to address the issue she raised, but could not find the time to publish it until today (Saturday) due to work demands etc
In this podcast I explain why ANY Farm CEO who says s/he has reservations adopting or considering adopting this futuristic technology for reasons like the above would actually be shortchganging him/herself massively.
And I mean EVERY word of the above.
That is the WRONGEST mindset to adopt when evaluating a FUTURISTIC solution that is ALREADY is use in other climes, especially when YOU have the CAPACITY and CAPABILITY to think, create and innovate as a Farm CEO in your own right!
…a multi-disciplinary blog for people passionate about reaching their goals!
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