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Well i did the thread but it mysteriously disappeared ,, just said tweets not sent you sent this already. So will try again in the morning. Do not despair https://twitter.com/cmashx/status/1251510225405870081
ISSA THREAD, Mistakes i made as a young emerging farmer 
@leadership_star @basera_john @munyaram @kumuziva1 @corporatefarmg1 @CynthiaTapera @KirstyCoventry @LovemoreNyatsin @sandradziwani @VundaFarm @MedaRowen @HarareHub
@leadership_star @basera_john @munyaram @kumuziva1 @corporatefarmg1 @CynthiaTapera @KirstyCoventry @LovemoreNyatsin @sandradziwani @VundaFarm @MedaRowen @HarareHub
2017 June is when i finished my 1st degree in Agricultural Economics. I had a job waiting for me at the place i did my industrial attachment. An office job, the company is in to horticultural produce exports.
As family we have a farm(53ha) 36km away from the CBD of Harare. We would always do grains but had never really broken the barrier were we would say we are farming commercially. We always had enough for us, the extended family & for the workers to last till next season harvest.
I figured that if i would do at least half of what i did at the company i had worked for i may be able to turn around our fortunes at the farm. I politely asked my boss to give me till end of year so i can also live my family at better level at the farm,
after all they deserved a little bit of give back for all the schooling they put me through. I told my family of my decision, i have never seen my dad so proud of me lol after telling him that. Its like the son he had always wanted hahaha. Some if the family members thought with
my degree program this was a perfect use of it (not really but well..) I drafted a very ambitious proposal and thank God some family members were willing to invest. I did not want to do away with grains side so from the usual 6ha i increased to 15ha and added 2ha of intensive
horticultural produce. 1ha for tomatoes in stages ofcoz, and a 1/4ha each for beetroot, carrot, butternut and red & yellow pepper. This was so i get market trends and familiarity of what works so that when i go back in i am well informed by experience.
I went to SA bought very strong relatively cheap drip irrigation lines, submersible pumps for 2 Boreholes , and a booster pump. Got an irrigation engineer to design a system for me and bought tanks and all the pipes required, all the seedlings, seeds, fertilizers and chemicals.
A good 2nd hand tractor and some implements.Recruited a serious team I had worked with before so to me everything-was set and it really was. So as for funding I was good. Fast forward to when the crops were ready for the market, well for the maize had an average to good yield,
managed to offset the balance for command agriculture we had 
(that means less capital to invest back
) for the crops because of the vigorous marketing strategy i had learnt during industrial attachment, marketing was my forte. All the crops did very well except beetroot.
(that means less capital to invest back) for the crops because of the vigorous marketing strategy i had learnt during industrial attachment, marketing was my forte. All the crops did very well except beetroot.
Money started coming in fast and furious almost everyday i was getting a notification of money coming in. Within 2months from start of harvest, i had almost reached half of the money invested in total but i was looking to get it fully back in the second cycle.
I figured business is going well time for me to go back to work (to get official work experience in my Cv lol) whilst at that even registered for a masters degree. The plan was go to work , study at night, go to the farm every weekend. But thats when things started to go south.
1st , work was just as demanding as was school as was the farm. 2nd because at the farm there was a system but it was literally central to me, the system followed me, produce started accumulating at the farm as frequency of deliveries had reduced as i usually did them.
I now had to sometimes go to the farm at 3am collect produce, deliver, by 8am am in office. After work at 4 i go to the farm again collect produce deliver. I started being inefficient at work and with my customers as my bosses and the market were now complaining.
I was also now too tired to be studying. 3rd no one was now managing the workers as i usually did so there was great negligence. One day i sent a driver to take a delivery i had notified the supervisor i need in the morning. 300kgs of carrots. They were collected and delivered.
I had built a great relationship with managers at supermarkets so the manager calls me ,, a big supermarket. Please come through its urgent your delivery Ma1. I rush there from work at 8:30 in the morning, all the carrots were not washed. The manager being an older guy said today
you have to learn, i still want your carrots there is the tap 
. I put my suit jacket in the car, removed my tie, folded my sleeves and i started washing and grading all the carrots by myself. i never told anyone about this before, this was more embarrassing than it was a hard.
. I put my suit jacket in the car, removed my tie, folded my sleeves and i started washing and grading all the carrots by myself. i never told anyone about this before, this was more embarrassing than it was a hard.
4th. I hear one of the tanks was stolen and the booster pump. There was a night guard but he just said i was scared though he was armed. But it then showed me that most of my things are now being stolen by the workers , inputs and produce too.
5th Recklessness became the order at the farm all the drip lines were removed after the pump was stolen only to be piled in the edges of the main house. When i went there after almost 2weeks the rats had dealt heavily with all the pipes. I had no drip lines anymore.
Below is a picture of them now. After i saw them piled in a cabin and decided roll them nicely thats when i decided to do this thread. All my tanks one after the other were just falling and breaking some way somehow.
6th Because of poor follow ups with the market coz of my divided attention one of the major market,,a very big company started paying my money of 2 or 3 deliveries i did that amounted to about 5tonnes of produce , in batches the 1st payment coming after 6months.
This hit me hard and maintaining these at the farm was now really difficult. Started supplying markets for the need of instant cash that would literally pay you enough to cover your transport costs to deliver that produce to them. It was a mess.
I remember delivering a truck load of cauliflower to Mbare and they said haaaa mdara apa tokupaiwo $40, am like for a crate zvikanzi haa maya truck yese mdaraaaa . Called each other and said haaa zvaka flooder izvi dzokerai henyu nayo i just had to leave the produce lol
. Called each other and said haaa zvaka flooder izvi dzokerai henyu nayo i just had to leave the produce lol
7th I started losing all of my best workers and this was one of the final nails in the coffin. Through all this my dad was the one trying so hard to hold the fort but it was just not the same. The money i earned per month i could literally get it everyday from selling produce
What drove me back to work? Fear of the unknown, did not look at farming as a career but a side hustle. I always wanted to work for UN and i thought i need the work experience. thought i could manage, i was overzealous & started too big a little too soon though i had the funds.
Ultimately in the end it was a major loss, i can imagine if it was money borrowed from the bank i would now be indebted for the most part of my life trying to payoff.
My major Take away from all this was that farming is bot a hobby, its not a side hustle,, well its not even a job or career. Farming is a way of life, it can not just be a part of you , it has to be you.
Its not enough to invest your money, you have to invest your passion, your time, sleepless nights, hard-work, dedication, accountability and responsibility. Right now am trying to get back in the game now applying what i learnt during that period and what am learning from other.
I can not wait to share my success story one day. The vision and dream is now even bigger. Lastly, personally i think 20% of life is what you make it, the 80% is how you take it. Nomatter the hardships you face, as a farmer make sure you always have something in the ground
no matter how small or little. STAY IN THE GAME. Please comment with lessons you learnt from this thread, your own experiences and tag as many youths who would be interested in farming so we share and learn from each other.
Something interesting from the link below please click to find out https://www.hobbyfarms.com/beginning-farmers-common-mistakes-farm-business/
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