Farming is an endeavor that allows a person to be involved in the growing of crops or keeping of domestic animals for the purpose of producing food and raw materials. Over the course of time, farming has rapidly evolved to incorporate technological and scientific advancements to make it a sustainable undertaking that utilizes resources such as land and water efficiently. These advancements have enabled the achievement of food security and significant revenues in many developed economies.

However, aspiring farmers need to keep key considerations in mind when deciding to become a farmer.

Before you embark on your farming venture there are critical questions that one must be able to answer in order to make the farming journey a success. The first and most important question is Why do you want to farm? This question will easily help an aspiring farmer to have a purpose or objective as to why he/she wants to farm.

This question has to be followed by asking What do you want to produce? This question helps a farmer understand that from the wide range of products available, he/she can focus on producing one or two with determination. For example, if one wants to be a livestock or crop farmer, they must decide to either focus on the production of cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, pigs, or crops. If one opts to produce livestock (cattle, sheep, and goats), aspiring farmers should identify their product of choice (breeding stock, weaners, oxen, or steers) to produce from their cattle farming venture. Aspiring crop farmers on the other hand may decide to focus on growing agronomy crops such as maize, pearl millet, wheat, or sorghum for grain production or to produce vegetables such as tomatoes, cabbages, potatoes, etc.

The third question is Whom are you producing for? This question helps you identify your potential target market which will be the immediate consumers of your product. Furthermore, this helps you to properly plan your production to meet sufficient quantities demanded by your target market.

The fourth question is What are your expectations? This question addresses the farmer ‘s envisaged output from the farming operations in the form of revenue and profit. Farmers are also encouraged to keep records that they can use to assess their progress, costs, and incomes. This will enable any farmer to answer this critical last question, is farming a business? Once you decide to embark on a farming journey, it should always be noted that once money is invested, one should anticipate a return on investment, and this makes farming a business.

Starting a farm is a complicated endeavor because it encompasses a myriad of aspects. In no particular order, farmers must consider business planning, finding land, securing financing, marketing, production selection, production knowledge, securing equipment, developing or securing infrastructure, and their vision for their farm. Moreover, an aspiring farmer should be cognizant of their knowledge and experience levels. In the final analysis, addressing these questions may ease the planning process and enable farmers to set up sustainable and profitable farming businesses.

Author: Hanks Saisai, Technical Advisor: Crops & Poultry (Agribank’s Agri Advisory Services Division)

Agribank has launched a two-season podcasting service that will cover 8 episodes each. The podcasts will be hosted by Ms Ndeshihafela Shinedima (aka Reina Nelao), the brand ambassador for the women and youth scheme that was introduced late last year.

Podcasts are hosted on platforms that offer ample amount of storage and the content (episodes) can be distributed to various social media platforms. The Agribank podcast will be hosted on the spotify and apple podcast platforms. The podcast started on Tuesday, 22 June and will be hosted every second Tuesday for eight episodes. The first season will cover topics such as range land management, farm maintenance, livestock (Small & Large) production, horticulture production, financial literacy, women and youth, agri-tech innovations, and agricultural marketing.

Agribank has now expanded its social media platforms and can be found on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. It’s Executive for Marketing and Customer Strategy noted that the Bank continues to “optimise its digitilisation and online presence. I therefore urge our stakeholders to follow us on these platforms and to make time to tune in to listen to the podcast at your own convenience”.

Meanwhile, the Bank is encouraging its clients and stakeholders to make use of online platforms to access its services, in order to minimize the risk of Covid-19 exposure. In this regard, clients are urged to make use of online payments, submit online applications, call Agribank offices for consultations and general enquiries as well as use the website and social media platforms for general enquiries.

Issued by:

Rino Muranda
Manager, Marketing and Communication
For enquiries, kindly contact the Marketing and Communication Division
Tel. 061 207 4332
Emailinfo@agribank.com.na

Following recent announcement of new COVID-19 regulations by His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Namibia, Dr Hage Geingob, which amongst other things limit public gatherings to a maximum of 10 people to curb the increase in infection rate, in the country, Agribank announces the suspension of the countrywide women and youth networking sessions with immediate effect.

The Bank in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, through its agricultural project Farming for Resilience (F4R), partnered to embark on a countrywide series of networking sessions, targeting women and youth in agriculture, hosted under the theme “creating women and youth Agri-preneurs.”

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH committed funds towards this partnership and the objective of these networking sessions is to provide insight into the various Agribank loan products under the Women and Youth scheme that was launched last year, while addressing obstacles on the loan product application journey. Free lectures, and training as well as a podcast broadcasting targeting established, and emerging farmers also take place during these sessions.

So far, the networking sessions covered Noordoewer, Aussenkehr, Oranjemund and Luderitz in the //Karas region as well as Maltahohe, Aranos and Rehoboth in the Hardap region. The Bank will continue to monitor the environment and the public will be informed when the face-to-face networking sessions will resume. In the meantime, Agribank urges all Namibians of all walks of life to continue to adhere to the Covid-19 safety regulations, go for voluntary vaccination, as well as to regularly wash hands, sanitise and wear their masks in order to contribute to the flattening of the infection curve.