Active Farmers’ Post

Ensuring your chicken coop is safe, well-ventilated, warm, and dry is paramount for the well-being of your poultry and the success of your farming venture. Beyond mere comfort, this commitment directly impacts the quality of your product and the reliability of your supply chain. The Hydro Coop stands out as the optimal choice for small-scale and family farmers due to its multifunctional design. Not only does it provide a secure habitat for chickens, but its innovative features also support the growth of vegetables, maximizing the use of space and resources. By maintaining a consistently dry and healthy environment, the Hydro Coop mitigates the risks associated with moisture, such as bumblefoot, respiratory diseases, and mold growth. This proactive approach not only safeguards the health of your birds but also minimizes losses and ensures the delivery of top-notch products to consumers. In essence, investing in the Hydro Coop is investing in the long-term success and sustainability of your poultry business.

Ensuring your chicken coop is safe, well-ventilated, warm, and dry is paramount for the well-being of your poultry and the success of your farming venture. Beyond mere comfort, this commitment directly impacts the quality of your product and the reliability of your supply chain. The Hydro Coop stands out as the optimal choice for small-scale and family farmers due to its multifunctional design. Not only does it provide a secure habitat for chickens, but its innovative features also support the growth of vegetables, maximizing the use of space and resources. By maintaining a consistently dry and healthy environment, the Hydro Coop mitigates the risks associated with moisture, such as bumblefoot, respiratory diseases, and mold growth. This proactive approach not only safeguards the health of your birds but also minimizes losses and ensures the delivery of top-notch products to consumers. In essence, investing in the Hydro Coop is investing in the long-term success and sustainability of your poultry business.

Coming from a farming family, this stat doesn't' surprise me; instead, it leaves me feeling numb. Recently, I shared a post about the impact of the extreme summer on my mom's banana plantation, where she made a net profit of only 1% after all her hard work. If the money had been in a senior citizen fixed deposit (FD) at a bank, she would have earned a 7.5% return. In context, agriculture is one of the most challenging businesses to be in. Farmers have little control over the four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion. Much like the severe income disparity in India, only 5% of farmers, who own large parcels of land, make significant money in agriculture. The rest, who typically own only about 2.5 acres on average, struggle with challenges ranging from droughts and floods to crop failures, lack of storage facilities, and lifelong debt. The private sector must increase its involvement in sustaining this profession. In 2015, TAFE - Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited introduced JFarm Services, a facility that enables the pooling of tractors and other agricultural equipment for marginal farmers. This initiative has grown into a movement. More such initiatives are needed to reduce costs and improve revenue opportunities for farmers.

#Sales | The agriculture industry has seen a large number of changes in its processes as the years have passed. With advancements in technology and improvisation in chemicals, even the Indian government has offered hands in helping farms get through better schemes by implementing various schemes in their welfare. The new-age farmers who started farming either on their own or are carrying on their family legacies are considered more knowledgeable and the next generation of farming. They use optimum methods and techniques that produce outputs, lifting off the generation-old methods. #startup #entrepreneurship | The DriveSales™

#Sales | The agriculture industry has seen a large number of changes in its processes as the years have passed. With advancements in technology and improvisation in chemicals, even the Indian government has offered hands in helping farms get through better schemes by implementing various schemes in their welfare. The new-age farmers who started farming either on their own or are carrying on their family legacies are considered more knowledgeable and the next generation of farming. They use optimum methods and techniques that produce outputs, lifting off the generation-old methods. #startup #entrepreneurship | MetaSales Technologies

These are good steps for Zimbabwean Horticulture. The next step is to raise awareness and make sure that horticultural farmers in Zimbabwe are aware of this. The more farmers who get the picture the more we realize even more markets globally through increased supply of horticultural produce.

𝟏𝟎 𝐌𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐅𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐈𝐧 𝐀𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐈𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒. 1. Small and Fragmented land holdings:-Indian Agriculture is mainly dominated by small and fragmented land holdings. 2.Lack of Marketing and Storage facilities:-Problems faced by farmers in agricultural marketing include transportation costs, inadequate market infrastructure, price fluctuation, lack of proper market information, and the role of exploiting local traders and middlemen. 3. Poor Adoption of Mechanization:- the expansion of mechanization in India, most of the agricultural operation is still done by labourers. 4. Credit Availability:-In the agriculture sector, availability and access to timely, adequate, and low-cost credit from financial institutional sources is more important, especially to marginal and small farmers. 5. Poor irrigation facilities. 6. Soil fertility depletion:-After the Green Revolution in the 1960s, the use of chemical fertilizers has been increased. To get quicker results, farmers have started using fertilizers excessively. Excessive usage of chemical fertilizer contributes to reduced organic matter content and humus content, decreased number of beneficial insects, poor growth, increased pest attacks, and altering of soil pH which ultimately leads to low productivity. 7. Inadequate access to crop insurance schemes:-The major problems persistent with crop insurance schemes faced by farmers include lack of proper awareness of insurance schemes. 8.Impact of climate changes. 9.Price volatility:-Price volatility can have a significant impact on the livelihoods of farmers, especially small farmers who are more vulnerable to market fluctuations. 10.Poor training and extension facilities:-Agricultural extension programmes help farmers by means of transfer of technology, assisting farmers in problem-solving and contributing to rural development.

Essentially speaking, in an Indian context, I see three approaches to agri-insurtech in smallholding contexts, depending on whether they are serving loanee farmers and non-loanee farmers. Who are loanee and non-loanee farmers? Loanee farmers are those who have a Crop Loan or Kisan Credit Card (KCC) account for notified crops and are covered compulsorily under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). On the other hand, non-loanee farmers are not required to have a loan but can still participate in the scheme if the proposed crop is notified for insurance by the state government. The scheme is compulsory for loanee farmers obtaining Crop Loan/KCC accounts, while it is voluntary for non-loanee farmers who have an insurable interest in the insured crops What are three approaches? One - The Center and the State [Federal] governments bear over 90 percent of the premium. This naturally distorts incentives. I’m talking about the ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Scheme (PMFBY scheme), which, as per the latest data, ‘enrolled 40 million in 2023-24, an increase of 27% from the 31.5 million enrolled in FY23’. Two - Niche agri-insurtech players like Kshema are coming up with specific products for non-loanee farmers. Three - Agritech players are partnering with insurance brokers like Digisafe and Gramcover for loanee farmers. More in a recent edition of Agribusiness Matters. Are there any more that I have missed out? Do chime in.

Resilience in Fish and Shrimp Business Fish and shrimp, both are considered high protein, low-fat alternative to other non-veg products. Aqua foods are popular menu all over globe & rich source of essential nutrients like omega 3 FA, vitamins, minerals and used as a healthier protein option with savory of its kind making it high demand and scope of promising market growth.  Producers are struggling in current years as prices are fluctuating for both. In shrimp it is added with recurring diseases at juvenile stage & many are demotivated. So the pressure on the control of production cost including cost of inputs, pond lease, electrical etc. Other challenges include environmental changes, over-production, and exports. The right choice has to be integration in general as a success model same as Poultry by establishing society collaboration amongst stakeholders (SPF certified hatchery, feedmill, farming, processor, exporters/traders to make the business viable and sustainable resulting good CBR.

Continuing with how we can turn around this critical phase that's squeezing the life, will to keep striving & hope out of the farmers of Pakistan. The only way we will be able to turn this around is by being patient with what we will be getting into coz the rewards of this alternate of conventional input intensive farming are decent enough to make you forget all your scars. What I need to know before we get into the details of the project is that what are the issues that you have been facing and what are the problems that you feel were not controllable and have contributed to the decline in the agri sector income. #pakistan #agriculture #project #business #smartbusiness #innovation