When the starting any commercial farm  the intension  in many cases is to run as a profitable and self-sustaining business that offers value to the community. However, the statistics of failing farm projects is still high. This article states some of the major causes of the deaths or failure of farm projects.

1.     Poor project planning

Every farm project needs detailed planning. This does not only involve finances and logistics but also the operations within the farm. Good farm planning starts with correct and truthful self-evaluation. Farming takes not only money but physical and emotional efforts from you and the people around you. Therefore, it is very important to make sure that you invest time and effort in planning you project. This should include coming up with a clear business plan for your farm project .

2.     Poor management

Whether you have hired a manager, or you are taking this job by yourself doing it wrongly could sink the project in general. The basic business management skills like responsibility, accountability and proper management and relationship with your employees are vital in maintenance of a project.

3.     Unresearched competition

Getting into the market because you have the skills and resources required is not enough. There is no bigger enemy of your project than an unknown competition in the market. This of course you will be tempted to avoid facing your competition or hiding what you are doing but in fact it is beneficial to interact with you competition so that you can know how to best innovate and deliver to the market what they are not offering. Healthy competition is a good recipe for growth and development in agriculture.

4.     Wrong choice of project

Imagine raring broilers in a vegan community, or yet imagine having a large commercial pig farm in a Muslim setting. This is just but an illustration of how project choice can affect the performance of your farm. In choosing your projects its is not only advisable to consider you ability to do it and the knowledge and resources available but also the fit of the product to the environment and culture. Consider the ecological requirements of you project and make sure it matches with your location. Make sure your project matches with your skills and financial ability too.

5.     Blind Expanding

Blind expanding is the high-rate growth and expanding of a project without properly considering the market. Healthy expansion involves expanding the market to make it so big and hungry that you can not in any way satisfy it with your current size of the business. This will now be time to buy or lease more land, employ more labor, order more inputs, and invest more money in the processes. It is harmful to expand your farm project just because you have the finances or space.

6.     Poor skill employment

This refers to the quality of skill you employ. Every business that survives and thrives well in the waves of the economy does so with one if its major strengths being quality skill. The people that work in your farm should have proper training in whatever it is you have chosen. A proper project in a perfect space with careless care takers is risky and will increase chances of the project’s failure.

7.     Low quality input

Inputs are everything utilized in the farm that comes from outside the farm. Things like feeds, seeds, fertilizers, supplements and many more. The quality of these things will automatically have a very high impact on both the quality and quantity of your produce. Poor quality produce will not competitive enough in the market in terms of prices and that is exactly where the losses come in. Choose your suppliers carefully. Having trustworthy employees will also help as you don’t want corruption that leads to swapping of good for bad quality inputs for personal gains. Perhaps proper employee recruitments, treatment and relations will help.

8.     Unresearched market

During both planning although the progress of your project, it is very important to have a clear and honest picture of what the market demands, and prices look like. How the products moves and in what form they are demanded most. Failure to research the market may lead to a big chance of failure of the project through losses. It is very discouraging to have a very high quality product in high quantities without a market as most of the agricultural produce are perishable.

9.    Neglect to technology

Technology has been and will always be the biggest driver of progress in any economy. Being the backbone of that economy technology also affects agriculture directly. With not only the exposure of Farmers to new incoming technology but also their willingness to adapt it in their own projects the farms thrive and grow with the new level of efficiency. As a farmer it is very important to look out for new farming technologies and research about them, try them out and adapt them as soon as they come. Slow or very late adaptation of a technology will lead to slow losses.