Why Should a College Graduate Consider Farming?

I get asked this question a lot of times: why should a big time, 21st century college graduate consider a career in a dirty, uncivilized farmland meant for the lowly and uneducated?

Well, the big time, 21st century University graduate is a big illusion.

A well-marketed fantasy: Nigeria is one of the largest producers of crude oil in the world. Graduate with a good degree in any discipline and secure a well-paying job in one of the several oil firms operating in the company. Buy a brand new car, build your house, get married and settle down within the first year of employment.

However, a 21st century University graduate has woken up to different reality. 



His reality is coloured by unemployment, a battered economy, low-paying jobs, and a starving populace. On his own he cannot change much of the situation. He can’t heal a sick economy and he can’t force himself on NNPC to employ.

But he can decline the low-paying jobs. He can employ himself by getting something profitable doing and in the process contribute his small quota to feeding the hungry.

There is money to be made in farming

There abound so many cash crops that yield bountifully several times a year, that does not require huge capital to start and for tangible profits. 

Plantain is one such money maker. It’s a farmer’s best kept secret. So is cocoa, which is an age-old wealth creator for the smart farmer. Coffee and Fruits are popular, the reasons for which are not so hidden.

And that is not to belittle animal husbandry as a constant money making machine. Chickens and Turkeys are famous for their flesh and eggs. Cattle and goat rearing is such a proven cash flow outlet that even banks give loans to ventures or individuals who set out to enlarge the enterprise.

If you say farming is for the poor, I’ll say farming is for the smart poor who wants to become rich.

Modern farming is mechanized

Yeah, some people in the rural areas still practice crude farming but thank God you are a college graduate. You know better.

You know there are tractors, ploughs, fertilizers, etc that can make the job fun and easier, increase the yield and profits as well. You know how to deploy pesticides and herbicides to your benefits. You know irrigation makes it possible for you to make money all year round.

The good thing though is that even if you don’t know the nitty-gritty of it all, you can learn it in no time, on the go.

There are fertile grounds all around

For those considering crop farming, the question of insufficient land does not arise at all. There are acres of acres of land waiting to be committed to a noble venture like farming.

If your father don’t own a plot, ask those whose fathers do. People want to help you succeed far more than you think. They may not necessarily be generous with the cash but they know people who know people with farmlands that you can start with before you raise the capital to buy yours.

That way you can start small, try your feet in the waters, navigate the risk involved, see if it’s something you can see yourself doing long term.

But I don’t know of any man who doesn’t like the chance to be his own boss, be able to provide jobs for others, supply products that are constantly in demand, and make profits hundreds folds more than the efforts put in. Coupled with a lot of peace of mind, if I may add.

If there’s only one thing you take away from this article, let it be that farming is hugely profitable whether it is undertaken by the young and strong or the old and weak. But the task of feeding 7 billion people and counting on earth, should not be delegated to the dying.

Remember, the oil industry will not be here forever, but farming will.