Farmer Entrepreneurship: What are we talking about Presentation by Joel M S BALIDDAWA Africa Services Group Ltd

Farmer entrepreneurship: What are we talking about?  Different types of farmers  Key drivers to run your farm as a business  How to make farming more productive, more profitable, more sustainable and more resilient?  Response  Discussion panel

Different types of farmers Crop Farmers (“Abalimi”) Livestock Farmers (“Abalunzi”) Food – Maize – Beans – Sorghum – Fruits, etc. Non-Food – Tobacco – Hay, etc. Cattle – Dairy – Beef Goats – Dairy – Meat Pigs Chicken Fish Others

Different types of farmers  Subsistence / Peasant Farmer – Farms for survival and to meet basic needs.  Commercial Farmer – Farms with deliberate purpose to meet an identified and quantified market need and to make a profit.  Prestige / Pleasure / Hobby Farmer – Likes the idea of being a farmer but does not need to farm for either survival or to make a living, but simply for enjoyment.

Different types of farmers Some important things to note:  Most livestock farmers are crop farmers too in one way or the other – think of pasture as a crop harvested by people or animals for animal feed which must be managed.  Crop farmers can benefit from livestock – e.g. animal wastes composted to generate fertilizer  Similarly livestock farmers can benefit from crops – e.g. recovering and processing crop residues into animal feeds  In their farming activities, breeders reproduce genetic material – e.g. livestock breeders; seed producers

Different types of farmers Product / Enterprise Subsist- ence / Peasant Commer- cial Prestige / Pleasure / Hobby LivestockCattleDairy Beef Goats Pigs Chicken Fish CropFood Maize Beans Sorghum Non- Food Tobacco Hay Where do you fall?

Key drivers to run your farm as a business  First and fore-most … is there a market for your products – i.e. can you produce what the market wants ; not what you think the market wants. If so:  Where is this market?  What is the size of the market?  What is the nature (structure / segmentation) of the market?

Key drivers to run your farm as a business  Do you have a strategic focus – i.e. do you know where you are going?  Do you have technical direction – i.e. do you know what to do, when and how?  Are you equipped to do what you have chosen to do – i.e. do you have what is required in place – i.e.  Do you have the required Technology / Best Practices  Do You and your Employees have the required skills

Key drivers to run your farm as a business  Do you have clear financial goals and objectives  Understand that the business’ money is not your money  Clearly define your revenue and profit targets and how they will be achieved  Revenue  Profit  Set up systems to ensure proper financial management  Respect the systems in place.

Key drivers to run your farm as a business Have you put in place strong governance systems and procedures – avoid a one-man show  Clearly define the boundary between yourself and farming business  Define the rules and regulations that will govern your business  Always respect the boundaries, rules and regulations

Thank you for listening! Joel M S Baliddawa Africa Services Group Ltd UWEAL House 38 Lumumba Avenue P.O. Box 5203, Kampala Uganda