Agribusiness Ideas That Work!!!

The Women in Business, Export and Finance (WIBEF) organization held their 2nd Summit on the 1st and 2nd of October, 2021 and invited me to share my thoughts on the above topic. The pleasure was all mine. It is always a privilege to be invited to speak on a subject as interesting as Agribusiness.

My starting point was to provide the participants with the distinction and the nexus between Agriculture and Agribusiness… here’s how I put it;

???????Agriculture is the art, science and process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired activities through the cultivation of plants (crops) and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).

???????Agribusiness?refers to the business part of Agriculture – the enterprises, the industry, the process, the system, the expertise and field of study of the inter-related and inter-dependent value chains in agriculture.

Agribusiness takes Agriculture into all segments of the economy and impacts on practically, all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) meant to transform our world. A deep and cursory look at the business sectors and the SDGs will reveal aspects of Agribusiness in them, one way or another. So, when we’re discussing a topic like “Agribusiness Ideas that Work”, it is important to recognize the vast opportunities that Agribusiness presents and the viable business ideas therein.

Apart from the link to other business sectors and the SDGs, sustainable and profitable Agribusiness ideas can be further identified in the Agriculture Value Chain (AVC). The AVC is a set of linked activities that work to add/improve value to an agricultural product or service from the point of the producer to the market.?The AVC therefore, is a valuable source of Agribusiness ideas. Other sources include the following;

???????Personal experience

???????Market survey

???????Media publications

???????Government policies

???????Brainstorming sessions

???????Entrepreneurship programmes

Agriculture Beyond Food

The concept of Agriculture Beyond Food (ABF) seeks to promote agriculture for purposes other than food and feed. It is believed that agriculture permeates every area of life and economic activities, therefore, ABF?looks to identify these areas and activities for development in the agribusiness bouquet. Now, this is an area that suffers inadequate attention and insufficient investment and participation, despite being full of viable business ideas. Let’s examine a few;

???????Agro-Education: Entrepreneurs in Agro-education provide training and capacity building and support for students, agro-entrepreneurs, business organizations, employees, investors, services providers, etc. There are also opportunities for internship, exchange programmes, mentoring, coaching, etc, provided by institutions, training organizations, etc. There is a huge opportunity here because the knowledge gap of many agribusiness owners in Nigeria today is very wide and painfully, distorted and requires intervention.

???????Agro-Entertainment: There’s room for 24/7 agro-content media platforms – newspapers, magazines, radio, television, social media, etc, as well as for photography, videography, documentary, cartoons, the development and promotion of celebrities like On-Air Personalities, programme presenters, etc. The level and volume of creativity that will be unleashed is beyond the imagination.

???????Agro-Technology: We’re probably, more familiar with operational (machinery and equipment), as well as innovative technologies (aquaponics, hydroponics, aeroponics, greenhouse, screen-house, drones, storage facilities, etc) in Agriculture. But there’s more… Artificial Intelligence (AI), technologies to manage the effects of climate change, supply chain (Blockchain Technology), eCommerce, technologies for farm management, etc.?And there’s room for much more…

???????Agro-Tourism: This refers to a form of tourism which activities are related to agriculture and?utilizes the unique offerings of rural and agriculture rich communities. With agro-tourism comes environments such as the following;

???????Resort

???????Farm excursion

???????Pleasure fishing

???????Horseback riding

???????Zoo

???????Garden

???????Agro-Healthcare: Alternative and complementary medicine have to do with any form of medicine or healing that does not fall into conventional medical practice. Healthcare interventions using diets and herbs (also known as Nutritional Therapy) has been practiced in many communities, all over the world, for many centuries. Herbology is the study and use of natural herbs, plants, and botanical knowledge to treat health and wellbeing problems as a natural way to help heal, prevent and treat illness, and improve health using natural ingredients. In Nigeria today, vast portions of the rural areas lack basic healthcare facilities; and where provided, plagued by inadequate equipment and manpower. Rural people deserve functional healthcare and agro-healthcare is one of the best options.

???????Agriculture for Recreation & Utility: There is Agriculture for pleasure, leisure, amusement, companionship, fashion, security, forensics and sport, etc. They include ornamental plants, livestock for work, as pets, for leather; to assist PLWDs; to help security officials to detect criminal or espionage activity; etc. There is much room for the development of enterprises in this area for the huge opportunities therein.

???????Agro-Engineering: This sub-sector is concerned with the design, construction and fabrication, and improvement of agricultural equipment, machinery and tools. A lot of machinery and equipment required by agropreneurs are imported at exorbitant costs, no thanks to the foreign exchange rate. Imagine, just imagine, if we had an array of designers and fabricators to churn out simple, functional and affordable machinery and equipment for agropreneurs… think about the boost in productivity!

???????Agro-Energy: This involves renewable/alternative energy derived from agricultural activities and natural resources - energy crops, by-products and agro-wastes, solar, wind, hydro, bio-fuel, bio-gas, etc. Agropreneurs are virtually, struggling with their businesses as a result of irregular, unstable, and high cost of power and energy. Investments are required to provide alternatives for their business growth.

???????Agro-Wastes Recycling: There are lots of agricultural wastes that can be recycled and repurposed into various usable materials such as;

???????Construction materials

???????Arts and Craft

???????Manure

???????Sanitary towel

???????Farming materials, etc

???????Research & Development: R&D has to do with any activity that is associated with creating new innovations in existing products, services, or procedures or the discovery of new innovations that lead to the creation new products. Opportunities abound in this area for entrepreneurship.

Conclusion

The truth is that there is no agribusiness idea that doesn’t work. Entrepreneurs need to engage, do the work - in market research, innovative products/services, packaging, obtain appropriate business capacity, improve networking and linkages, etc, to make their chosen ideas to work.