Many people love to farm. Many of us are looking at farm as retirement options several people just want to own a farm. On several occasions we have discussed whether it’s good to buy or lease land for farming purpose.
Each has gone its own advantage and disadvantages which an intending farm owners need to put into great consideration before deciding on the best choice
This morning we will be discussing some of the factors that one need to put into consideration before buying that farm land
- NEARNESS AND ROAD NETWORK
The farm you are setting up is a business centre or we could call it the office. We go to our office every day to perform some activities.
Same thing applied to the farm as a business centre. Several activities take place on the farm everyday.
It’s therefore important that your farm is close by with good road network so you can visit at any time of the day.
I actually advise people not to have farm that they cannot rushed to in anger.
Imagine there is an emergency and your attention is needed on the farm or you just want to pay them some surprise visit.
Farm should be somewhere that you can readily visit at any time for better supervision
Good road network to the farm is an additional advantage for you to easily get to sell your farm produce. Buyers most often visit farms that have good network.
Transporters also hang around those community so they can move farm produce to market - ACCESS TO WATER
Rain fall is no more a great source for crop production like in the olden days. Climate change happens and it’s still happening
No one, not even the meteorological people that study the rain pattern can actually predict when the rain will fall or not.
Neither can they accurately predict the quantity of rainfall that we are expecting
CLIMATE CHANGE has affected everything.
Please do take time to read more on climate change effect on agriculture so you understand how to manage your farm
Before committing fund to that land space, ensure there is possible source of water or you are planning to create water source on your farm
Several of my articles and books has intensive discussion on the best source of water management for your farm.
Make sure the land you want to buy have external sour e of water outside the rainfall
Having access to water ensure you can plant all year round hence can tap from every of the market peak and sometimes glut price
Having water give you edge over the farmers that for not have water hence can only plant for few months in the year
Farm produce have been known to command better price at those time when the produce are not much in the market
Those scarcity time happen because only few farmers that have water can cultivate crops - FARM WORKERS AND STAFF
No matter the amount of money you have to run a farm, you will be humbled if you don’t have farm laborers and farm workers to run the system for you
Farm management plus farm activities are carried out by farm workers and staff.
These days farm workers are extremely scarce because none want to do the tedious farm work again.
And we will sincerely not blame them.
The world has gone beyond the manual tilling of land that we still practice in Africa
Majority of the back breaking work has been replaced by machineries
When considering to own a farm land that you want to keep active, I will suggest that you look out for areas that still have access to farm workers
The northern part of Nigeria has access to plenty and affordable farm workers that will readily assist you on the farm. Though it come with its own attendance problem of insecurity.
The southern part which is peaceful has no access to farm labors
Most of us who are close to the border depend on the foreign workers that come through the borders on annual basis
The Lagos border side also have access to yearly farm labourer that comes in through that side - HERDSMEN INVASION
HERDSMEN is another big challenge that trouble farmers. HERDSMEN move across the country with their cattles destroying farm crops.
They graze their cattle’s on farmers crop and some of them threatened to kill the owner of the farm if he dares challenge them. HERDSMEN are everywhere. However, their destructive nature is more pronounced in some areas than others.
Some communities have abandoned the farm for fear of herdsmen. Ensure you do thorough research before committing fund to that land, communities with large no of farmers are often protected from herdsmen because of their nos. You can source out such area - FARM THIEVES
On several occasions, farmers get to the farm to discover his crop has been harvested overnight, this act is carried out by specific community members who has been following your activities.
In most cases, the community will never disclose to you that they have people that steal farm produce in their community.
Sure they know that but they are only interested in selling the land to you.
You get to discover that after you have committed fund and resources
You have to do through investigation before committing fund to the farm.
Any farming community you visit and there are no non-INDIGENES cultivating crops in that area should give you a red signal.
I am not saying all community are like that but you should be concern why they have non indigenes buy land or borrow land from them. Some might have come and run away, find out why they ran away.
