What can you do if you want to start profitable farm businesses? Are there any ideas that you can implement to ensure that you reap maximally even though you have a small piece of land? In today’s article, we shall be exploring some of the ideas that I came across recently when researching profitable farming.
Most people think of farmers as people who have enviable lives. When questioned, however, the farmers may have a different story to tell. They can for instance talk of being prisoners to the buyers of their products, and of how the weather keeps on disappointing them. the most interesting thing about these farmers is that you will barely find them talking about how they will switch to city life. Most of them will focus on finding ways to make their small businesses profitable.
To achieve profitability in any line of work, one must apply entrepreneurial principles. An entrepreneur constantly thinks about he or she can maximize the revenue from a given business, even with limited resources. This applies to those in the agriculture industry as well. If you are a farmer who wants to earn more money despite having a small piece of land, you can consider the following ideas:
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Try out gourmet and medicinal mushroom farming
Mushroom farming is a very lucrative venture. If you want to optimize your earnings, you can try out the special mushrooms instead. You will make more money if you can consistently produce medicinal and restaurant-grade mushrooms.
If you stick with the button mushrooms, you may not earn as much money, since you will be competing with many other farmers to deliver to supermarkets. Depending on the type of mushroom that you choose to grow, you can end harvesting some after about 15 weeks. With your customers on stand by at all times, you will definitely be glad to reap your harvest and sell it all at a higher price.
You can read more about Gourmet and medicinal mushroom farming in relevant books, just to get a clearer idea of what to expect throughout the farming period.
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Snail farming
Snails are in most cases perceived as pests. Snail farming, or heliciculture, as is popularly known has been around for a long time. People in developing nations are actually taking up snail farming, owing to its perceived profitability.
Snail farming is one of the businesses that you can start small and scale up as you develop a stable and regular market for your harvest. Provided that you can get shelter and food for the snails, you should be well on your way to profitability if you follow the best snail farming best practices.
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Fish rearing
Fish farming can be quite a profitable business. If you start out with Tilapia, you will need to have the farm in a region whose water temperature is about 20 degrees Celcius (68 degrees Fahrenheit). If you are living in a region in which the temperatures is lower than this, you will have to look for ways to heat the water- this can end up being quite costly if done over a long period. Thing is, your fish will survive in the low-temperature conditions but will have a slower growth rate.
You can harvest your fish in about 6 months after obtaining them from a supplier. The good thing is that there is a ready market for fish, hence you can make an impressive amount of money every 6 months.
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Breed dogs
Dog breeding is obviously a controversial subject and one that most people would not be very open to being proponents to. In most countries, there are animal shelters that have many dogs that are waiting to find new homes. This withstanding, there are people who still want specific pedigree breeds.
If you can breed the small and rare dog breeds, you can have a decent return on your investment. The large dog breeds may be more expensive to maintain and bring up, so you can save those for a time when your business is fully-fledged.
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Sell farm by-products
Even on a small farm, there are many by-products which you can resell and get a profit. Some things you can consider reselling include:
- Feathers- If you are rearing any feathered animals on your farm, you can collect and sell their feathers. There are people who love using the feathers in a variety of crafts such as ornaments, hats, etc.
- Manure- manure is an eco-friendly alternative to the regular fertilizers that damage the soil. If you have animals that produce manure in your farm, you can package it in bags and sell it in garden centers.
- Wood – if you have excess trees on your small farm, you can clear some away and sell them as firewood to those who would need it.
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Rear bees and rent them out
Most people know bees for their capability to produce honey. In addition to that, they are also great pollinators. The colony collapse disorder, however, led to a drastic decline in the bee population. This means that farmers who want their crops to be pollinated have to source for the bees elsewhere.
Did you know that you can make about $136 per hive if you rent them out to field owners for pollination purposes? Certain crops and fruits are heavily dependent on insect pollination, so you can view this as an opportunity worth exploring.
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Flower growing
If you have been growing food crops such as potatoes, wheat, and millet, switching to flowers may seem like a very odd thing to do. If you do it, right, however, you can make some good money through:
- Growing flowers to resell to florists
- Growing flowers that can then be sold to other farmers who want to start flower farming.
- Selling the mature flowers to the public
- Selling dried flowers and flower parts to those who make various crafts.
- Selling dried flowers to confetti makers.
With a small portion of land, you can grow high-value flowers and profit from selling them to various customers.
The global population is growing at a fast rate, and there’s a need for us to learn how to utilize the limited spaces to profit from agricultural activities, as we also feed our families. By going through the 4 part series recommended below, you can acquaint yourself with the knowledge on the state of agriculture in the present-day world, as well as how things are expected to turn out in this decade. Owing to the frequently occurring events and circumstances (e.g the Covid-19 pandemic), it is becoming more apparent that we need to equip ourselves with knowledge on how to survive even in the tough times. Here is something worth checking out if you are a farmer or an investor in the field of agriculture:
Surviving the looming food security challenges in this decade | Expert’s take on how to remain profitable
Thank you for reading through the article about how to start profitable farm businesses. I hope the ideas presented herein were beneficial, and that you now know which ones can work for you, based on the resources that are within reach. Are there any ideas that you think that I left out? Be sure to share them in the comments section. You can also share the article with a friend who would benefit from the information in here.
I wish you well,
Eric, Investor and Team Member at Gold Retired!
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