Agriculture Is Not What A Lot Of People Think It Is.
Hello, everyone.
I welcome you to my blog. Agriculture is something a lot of people perceive or believe to be something that only poor people engage in, especially in my country. Once you tell a person who is into white-collar jobs that you are a farmer or into farming, before you say another word, they have already drawn a conclusion about you. Even agricultural courses or courses related to agriculture that are studied in Nigerian universities are not rated; friends tease you and remind you how you will end up a farmer. I am speaking from experience, and it was really not an easy one, especially when the agricultural-related course was forced on you.
During my National Diploma, I studied civil engineering with the hope of furthering at a university on the same course, but Nigeria happened, and I was given a completely different course (Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering). I cried my eyes out because I was one of those who thought farming and agriculture were not something one should be involved in, especially if you want to be rich 😂. Since I did not want to stay at home anymore, I accepted the admission and went ahead to study agricultural engineering, which I now have a degree for.
Studying this particular course changed my perspective about agriculture and everything related to it. Agriculture is actually one of the few things generating income for many countries, including Nigeria. We have exports of both food and cash crops leaving the country on a daily basis; many farmers are doing way better than many 9-5 workers with their tie and feeling like they have arrived. Many 9-5 workers have seen that agriculture is a gold mine and have started to invest in it as a second source of income; many 9-5 workers own poultry farms or fish farms, whether big or small. At least that proves how much of a treasure agriculture is.
It has a lot of disadvantages, especially in developing countries where farm mechanization (the use of farm machinery to carry out agricultural activities) is not yet a thing; it is stressful and energy-draining doing everything manually or with manpower. For countries that have adopted farm mechanization, the work is made easy, but farm machinery is expensive to buy and maintain. Agriculture is way more than what a lot of people mistake it to be.
If I were to create an app where farmers and buyers will interact directly, I would call the app Agric-hub, a place where buyers are in touch with farmers directly with no need for a middleman, thereby cutting down the cost of food crops and even cash crops.
Agriculture is a lucrative business, just that many sees it as a dirty job, but when you discovered the gold in it, you'll want to delve into it just like your situation.
The entire agricultural sphere is one nobody on the globe can exist without because no matter the condition of the country, people must eat. I used to have that myopic view that farmers were poor people until I met a friend who lives the best life because he has been a farmer for a major part of his life. I currently preparing to engage in the business as well as a side hustle once the finances pops in.
Beautiful write up man