Five Agricultural Business Ideas to Transform Your Life in Nigeria
Agricultural business remains the backbone of Nigeria’s economy, accounting for 22% of GDP and 34% of the labour force, making it the largest employer of labour in Nigeria. With an arable land area of approximately 36.9 million hectares, Nigeria has immense potential for various agricultural businesses to succeed. Despite abundant agricultural resources, food inflation has been rising, driving households into poverty. However, agricultural investments can drive Nigeria into prosperity and build a sufficient middle class.
Before the commercial exploration of oil in the late 60s, Nigeria’s economy thrived on agricultural business. The West of Nigeria dominated in Cocoa, the North in Groundnut and cereals, while the South in Palm oil and Rubber crops. Revenue from these cash crops drove agricultural businesses that funded Nigeria’s earliest infrastructure and educated public school graduates. Then came the oil windfall, and Nigeria caught the Dutch disease. Ironically, the Dutch have shaken off this disease to build an economy reliant on agriculture business, becoming the second-largest exporter of agricultural products worldwide.
Unfortunately, Nigeria, with over 36 million hectares, imports food-related products worth over 26 trillion annually, with an agricultural deficit of 600b in 2019 due to the failure of the successive government to trigger the growth of agricultural business in the country by making agriculture attractive.
Though risky, agriculture can generate sufficient returns on investment with the right experience and efficiency. This is why I have written this article to trigger some agricultural business ideas. If you find the ideas worth it, please do further research and grow your experience before embarking on any
Here are five agricultural ideas capable of returning good profits in Nigeria:
- Vegetables and Fruits Farming
Vegetables and fruits are highly sought after due to their high contents of multivitamins and minerals. They form part of our daily dietary requirements and have huge market demand. Vegetable and fruit farming doesn’t require large acres of land like other agricultural businesses that involve the cultivation of cash crops yet offer significant return on investment.
Vegetables and fruits like cucumber, Paw Paw, watermelons, oranges, ugu leaves, tomatoes, peas, garden eggs and others are in high demand. The market is readily available making it a lucrative agricultural business.
Most Vegetables are ready to harvest within three months, and with irrigation, you can plant every quarter and make profits. With renewed interest in hydroponics and greenhouse farming, vegetable farming can be done all year round without land area not being an issue
How to Cultivate Vegetables and Fruits:
– Determine your market and target buyers
– Lease or purchase at least two plots of land
– Purchase high-quality seeds based on market need
– Prepare the land, ensuring humus and aeration
– Plant seeds, nurture, and harvest
– Sell to your target market
- Freshly Cut Fruits and Vegetables
Another lucrative but ignored agricultural business idea is fresh cut vegetables and fruits. Fresh cuts are fruits and vegetables that are cut into parts from the whole, refrigerated and sold. I know you would have bought a slice or two of watermelon or pineapple from those guys in front of your street. Like many Nigerians, you might have looked down on it without realising that the fresh cut vegetables and fruits sector worth billions of dollars globally and is ever expanding.
In Europe, the market for freshly cut fruits and vegetables is over $40b and growing. In Nigeria, there is no data on the market size since it is being run by not-so-literate merchants but estimating using the population of Nigeria it is a huge and untapped sector with a lower barrier to entry hence making it a good agricultural business idea
As the purchasing powers of Nigerians fall due to the rising inflation, Nigerians still want to eat their favourite fruits and vegetables and keep to their healthy diet plan. Therefore making investment in fresh cut vegetables and fruits a worthy idea.
However, be mindful that most Nigerians are now cautious of hygiene. If you are interested in this, do well, to do better in hygiene and packaging from those who presently control the sector.
Additionally, I have seen packaged dehydrated fruits being sold. Reel food is a pioneer in this sector and has gone on to receive various funding from different capital investment firms.
Think deeply, find a fruit and vegetable you can prepare as fresh cut, package neatly and find a distribution network. The expansion of supermalls across different locations in high density areas provides a good distribution network to begin with.
- Maize Farming
I have always told anyone who had ever asked me for agricultural business ideas for large-scale farming to consider maize farming. In southern Nigeria, we utilise most of the maize we cultivate for home consumption-roasted, boiled or other food related needs, this makes farmers from the south who cultivate maize not to have a good return on investment because the farmers sell the corn with its cob.
Maize is one crop that will offer you a far higher return due to its huge industry demand, for this reason it is one of the most traded commodities in the world.
Presently, a bag of maize sells for over N40,000 and it will definitely jump in price. I often encourage anyone who seeks to cultivate cassava to reconsider maize as it is a very profitable agricultural business with demand all year round. From my knowledge the demand for maize rarely abates and Nigeria does not produce sufficiently to take care of local consumption demand.
Maize cultivation is also not tedious. Once you have good soil and seed, your maize is bound to do well, provided no insect invasion or disease manifests on the farm.
The key to making money in maize farming is to dehusk the maize, dry them, and package them in bags for resell.
If you are interested in large commercial maize farming, start by seeking an off-taker for your product. In the north, this should not be a problem. In the South, especially in the south-south and SE, it might be.
- Livestock Farming
Livestock farming will continue to be a lucrative agricultural business though capital-intensive. Meats from cattle, pigs, and goats are the cheapest sources of animal protein. Beef is the most consumed meat in the world, closely followed by pork.
Many in the South wrongly think that rearing cattle is a preserve of the Fulanis, this can not be true. In 2018, I set up a cattle farm for a client in Osun state, and that farm is still functioning and growing to date. My client took cattle farming seriously and his cattle as a store of wealth. I understand that many in the south do not see livestock as a store of wealth. Livestock is one of the earliest commodity early civilizations earmarked as valuable assets to store wealth.
The demand for cheap sources of protein will continue to rise as the human population continues to rise, outstripping supply. The good thing about rearing either cattle, goat or pigs is that the feeds are not imported or dependent on FX or commodities susceptible to FX fluctuation like poultry and fish farming.
The key to setting up a profitable cattle farm is having a good source of feed. My client in Osun uses a mixture of brewery waste and fodder to breed his cattle
- Food Processing
Despite the rising inflation, 40% of agricultural products are wasted in Nigeria due to poor handling and storage techniques. Providing a solution to the many agro products that we waste is a money spinner, made better because due to the Fx fluctuations many of the international food brands patronised by Nigerians have gone out of reach for many of its local consumers.
Processing means adding value to a raw material that changes its natural state. The value addition should make it better and fulfil a market need.
There are various agricultural products in your locality that need value addition, find them, add value and scale up and you would create a thriving agricultural business.
- Ornamental Farming
Ornamental farming is the cultivation of plants for its beauty, primarily for export. It is a branch of farming that has yet to have a footstool in Nigeria, partly because the market is in Europe and thus it needs skilled farmers who can cultivate plants and meet rigorous export requirements of its destination market. Egypt and Kenya have succeeded in this lucrative branch of agricultural business and are Africa biggest exporters of ornamental plants. Nigerian farmers can key in but before then the government should make the ports friendly to agro exports.
If you do not want to get into the turf world of agriculture, there are other investments you should get into