It’s also said that you can’t go wrong in farming, as it’s a lucrative venture.
Here is our two cents about this venture, we’ll be speaking about a starter pack, guideline, boxes to tick off while considering investing and making money in farming.
I will have disclaimers that this isn’t an expert opinion, we’ll be speaking from our own perspectives and things we’d have required to know as we started off our journey in agribusiness.
We shall also be very specific to vegetable farming as it’s the area of specialization of the business.

As earlier mentioned farming has been seen to be a lucrative venture, especially when there is high demand and low supply of a specific produce. Most times than not after we realize a gap we end up producing too much of it and the market floods with the produce.
A good example of this would be Quail egg farming, the few who made good money in this venture were the ones who started off from the beginning as opposed to those who jumped onto the band wagon.
Here are some key points you’d need to take into consideration before you start farming.

Market Research
Do not get into farming because you hear there is money in farming, please do you due diligence and understand the market.
Understanding the market requires you to know, what you will be producing, who will be you clients, how do you differentiate your produce.
You need to understand what’s the current need in the market; the need could be organic food, you should understand as a farmer how people perceive and understand organic foods, is it how they are grown or how they are processed to final product, or even the time between harvest and consumption?
Once you as the farmers are aware of the gap you need to fill up, then you are able to determine what to produce.
This should be the very first step if you are considering farming.

Financial Capability
Farming is a capital intensive business venture, so much capital has to be pumped into the business for it to be smart and easy farming.
Financial capability is hidden is different forms such as:

1. Land: As a farmer this is a necessity (not always). Depending on what to produce, you’d need to know the location of your farm. If it’s tomato farming you’d consider doing it in areas such as Machakos County, Cabbages would be Nakuru County/Kiambu county etc. Once you’ve known what produce to determine the location, you go on and do the ground work and see if there people willing to lease/sell idle land. Leasing land is highly common in Kenya and is a cheaper option to buying land. Land may not be a necessity to every farmer as we are embracing modern farming like Hydroponic farming, where you don’t need so much space and can rent a rooftop of a building in a city and set up for Hydroponic farming.
2. Equipment: As mentioned farming needs to be easy ,hence the necessity to invest in equipment that will make the process easy on the farmer. As a farmer you have to realize you will be producing in all seasons, this means investing in proper water-storage, and irrigation methods. This is a one off cost in farming, think of it as an investment necessary to keep you producing. This cost depends on the size of the land. You can farm and earn money in a quarter acre of land, no land is too small you just need to be smart about it.
3. Inputs: This is critical because it serves as a huge cost but very hidden as you consider getting into farming.
   
   • There are people who prefer to start with the professional help of an Agronomist before they commit to even researching on what to produce. This is important especially if you are farming from land you are leasing you need to understand what crop is best grown there, the type of soil, the PH of the soil and what crops might do well.
     [My plug for this would be Losiana Agrodristibutors https://www.instagram.com/losianagrodistributors/]
   • To farm you would need manure/fertilizers that will be used to grow your produce. I prefer using manure compost [mixture of cow dung, sheep waste and chicken waste] in my farming rather than fertilizers. You’ll have to decide as a farmer what’s best for you.
   • You should also consider the seeds you’ll purchase. I would advice if at all you are farming in a large scale buy seeds from a trusted company and put them in a seed-bed rather than buying the seedlings. [Simlaw seeds is my trusted seed brand]
     If at all you don’t have the time to plant seeds then you can use a seedling farming company (Warning will be very expensive)
   • You need to be aware that you’ll need an employee to work for you, whether is on a full-time basis or part-time. Depending again on the area your farm is located you need to know the work rates for those who work in the farm.
   • Water is another huge input in vegetable farming. I would advice especially while looking for land this needs to be an essential requirement to ask, whether there is a possibility of sinking a bore hole. This is a cost of its own, if you are using water from a water-project near by you need to know how much per unit the water will cost. A great tip would be to invest in tanks that can hold almost 20,000L of water and harvest during rainy season, which can easily bring you total water bill lower when it’s not raining.

With this few guidelines we’ve mentioned, I think you’d be on the right journey to starting your farming business.
In a subsequent blog I will tackle the official requirements needed to run a farming business in Kenya.