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LETTER TO MY FARMERS
Food Security: When there is Hope, there are Ways!
December 9, 2022
270

Farming is a legacy occupation that has existed for many centuries in the World, in which mankind has benefited tremendously directly and indirectly from it. Incredibly, it has created wealth and a source of livelihood for many people. However, the wealth creation propensity from farming has been on decline for a few years now, and many involved in farming are rather living in abject poverty. Even farmers rarely want to hand over this occupation to their children, as farming is perceived to be synonymous to automatic poverty. This is a bitter story, and there is a need to change this story.

To change this story, stakeholders must change the way farming is being practiced in today's society to a more reliable alternative known as Agribusiness or otherwise called Business of Agriculture. Every business owner is a risk taker, and every risk taker is profit oriented and always eager to succeed at all costs. Invariably, the business of agriculture has a great potential for shared prosperity amongst its actors, and can create a more sustainable wealth, better livelihood and better still, increase in the value of agricultural commodities.

Farmers who embrace the business of agriculture are more productive and enterprising, and are better suited to adopt innovations or new technologies to achieve better results. Even the foundation of generational wealth can be created and established through the business of agriculture. Therefore, it is important that farmers understand the nitty gritty of the business of agriculture; scale of production, market sourcing, value addition, premium market, premium products, warehousing, cost reduction and improved adoption of GAPs amongst others. Farmers need not to focus on primary production alone, but identify other opportunities that exist that would give them more value for their efforts. There is a time value of money and investment, and it is the most honorable decision to make as farmers and seize every opportunity to achieve more productivity and get more value as much time being invested in production. We all need to work together to achieve this behavior change and mind shift in order to achieve food security. Let us build a new set of food champions, whose believes are in the people, planet and profit at all cost. Let the change start NOW.

Yours-in-Service