1 min
In the business of agriculture, understanding financial concepts is an underrated skill and applying it in your day-to-day activities is the icing on the cake - a farmer cannot go wrong with it. Every farmer should have a good understanding of financial concepts such as budgeting, expenses (costs), revenue, profit or loss, savings, loans and investment. The foundation of applying these concepts is built on the ability of the farmers to be able to keep accurate and appropriate records in order to benefit from them and make use of it to measure the growth and productivity of his or her farming business.
Affirmatively, it is a bad business decision for a farmer to start production without having a budget of what would be cultivated, money to be spent and the likely income to make from it. Any farmer without such a plan is not in the business of farming yet, but still fulfilling the culture of farming. Likewise, excess money made from production should be deliberately planned for - either to save for future spending or invest the money to make more money. These are conscious and deliberate actions that farmers need to imbibe to make farming worth the efforts and productivity higher. The beauty of business is for it to be self-sustaining rather than intervention-based. The latter only creates more vulnerable farmers that cannot meet their daily needs.
Therefore, we need to build the competency of farmers to be financially literate, especially for smallholder farmers who are transitioning from just doing farming as a culture into the business of farming. Also, reinforcing the culture of record keeping to make the lessons of financial literacy impactful. In addition, we need to develop a curriculum that would meet the needs of these farmers in a systematic way to encourage self-paced learning.
In the world of agriculture, learning is a continuous process as new realities emerge. Achieving food security is beyond just producing food alone, it is a process of having the sufficient resources to achieve continuous food production that satisfies the needs of the consumers. Therefore, financial literacy is an essential knowledge for a farmer to manage their resources effectively and efficiently. The economy is changing, farmers must understand how these changes affect them and how to proactively react to these changes for them to remain in business and still be productive. Therefore, we need to have more prosperous farmers in our communities, who have weathered the storm of financial instability and can impact the coming generations with shared prosperity through agribusiness. Let us be financially enlightened and remain in the prosperous business of agriculture.
Yours-in-Service
Babatunde
Therefore, we need to build the competency of farmers to be financially literate, especially for smallholder farmers who are transitioning from just doing farming as a culture into the business of farming. Also, reinforcing the culture of record keeping to make the lessons of financial literacy impactful. In addition, we need to develop a curriculum that would meet the needs of these farmers in a systematic way to encourage self-paced learning.
In the world of agriculture, learning is a continuous process as new realities emerge. Achieving food security is beyond just producing food alone, it is a process of having the sufficient resources to achieve continuous food production that satisfies the needs of the consumers. Therefore, financial literacy is an essential knowledge for a farmer to manage their resources effectively and efficiently. The economy is changing, farmers must understand how these changes affect them and how to proactively react to these changes for them to remain in business and still be productive. Therefore, we need to have more prosperous farmers in our communities, who have weathered the storm of financial instability and can impact the coming generations with shared prosperity through agribusiness. Let us be financially enlightened and remain in the prosperous business of agriculture.
Yours-in-Service
Babatunde
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