Food business is a Serious Business. Eat Green, Live Long!

mercylicious:
Tarpauline pond my colleague built for their retiring parents. It think it was built in new MKT road.

It's interesting... how much does it cost and how is the drainage?

MsJJ:
Following too..... I see prof Jasper7 here!

I am here o. Olamimo12 is a great guy. I must throw my weight behind him .

Eesha:
Jenny, so did u think they inhale their food.

hahahahaha. you guys are just hilarious

Pavore9:


l suggest you do video recordings of each step of the way from the virgin land, the clearing, the planting through to harvesting and the end you edit and compress to a 15mins video as you would should surely need for future presentation when dealing with investors/donors. l was at a presentation hosted by an European foundation and young farmers who were seeking funding presented their farm videos, l recall a lyoung ady who was given a standing ovation as her farm is 100% organic as she started her farm on an infertile land and did amend the soil with red worms as they used to aid the decomposition of organic waste matter into castings (worm poop), which is rich in supportive elements that make it an excellent soil amendment.

Record your activities.

I am loving this idea. A 15 minutes documentary on project Jireh. Thank God so far I have taken pictures and videos. I love this! As you just said this now, you opened my head to many ideas and opportunities. Thanks my oga! God bless you.

"Project Jireh goes over and beyond the 10 hectare investment in cucumber and watermelon.
We as a team are extremely keen to prove to Nigerian investors and entrepreneurs that the safest and fastest way to get high returns on investment is to invest in good agribusiness" - Jasper 2015

This is frrom our first trip to Ogbomosho, myself and my production manager. We went to monitor the clearing of the Land by the bulldozer. In the next 3 weeks, you'll not recognise this place again because it will be full of watermelon and cucumber seedlings

Gmajor:
Nigeria is still struggling to feed it populace so we don't have time to play with food

Very very very very funny... I have been laughing for hours . God bless you

I was discussing Fresh Food Marketing with a friend just a few days back, and contrary to how easy I make it sound on paper to sell stuff. It's actually a herculean task. Production is easier than marketing.

It will be erroneous for any individual to perceive or deduct that marketing of Fresh Food is easy. This is because Fresh Food is highly perishable which makes the marketer a bit nervous when goods remain is his store for more than a day or 2.

That's why you can't really talk of building an Agribusiness Empire without talking of Preservation. Do you know that with the right cooling temperature, vegetables can last in the store for 28 days or more. Yes, yes, yes. It can be done, even without electricity. I have achieved 13days, I am heading for 20 and gradually will hit a month. If the puzzle of preservation can be cracked, then marketing becomes an easy nut to crack.

excess4luv:
@ jasper, if you read marketing or economics, i wouldn't be surprised. I have followed you to believe that what we actually need is not capital cash but capital sense, you have graciously conquered the hurdles of seed procurement, seed germinate, seed growth, fruiting, watering, seasonal planting, weed and paste control, quality products and now marketing, it will only take it will only require capital sense to have gone this far. I respect the passion in you to lead the nigerian youth through this path, posterity will never forget your kind of person. All thanks to a friend who told me about Nairaland, i have learnt alot toiling the pages and forums of this great site, thanks to seun thanks to all contributors of differentthreads on this site. I have decided to give a shot to agriculture after studying Engineering.
Posterity will ever remain fair to you sir. EXCESS.

Economics Bsc. to the surprise of many. Am not an Agric "expert". But I believe there are other ways to Education apart from schooling.

chedom1:
pls sir can I get ur contact, I will like to visit your farm now that am done with my exams,am currently in owerri, and a student of imsu

Surer, hope to be around next week. I can still put you through to a few people to visit their farms if you'll not be around next week.

15,000 is cheap for an already cleared farmland. I know the price I rent at.

Pictures from my 2nd visit after land clearing. At the tomato nursery of Hastom Green City.

We Thank God who has helped this project take shape. Investment closing on the 17th of April...

This is great. was following it up yesterday... and this is great.

@Austin234. If you suspect leaching or erosion, that's a problem. if you want to make beds in a sloppy land, make the beds against the slope, to encourage retention of water.

Also look into what happybrother talked about, you don't apply insecticide during flowering stage during the day time. because that's when the bees pollinate.

It's interesting... I am still expecting more

Okay, let's talk about another man I love his business model. Akin Alabi

All my Nigerian folks be like "na jazz men". .

Let's continue, Jason Njoku did such a great job with Itokotv, so good that he got a total investment of 13 million dollars. That was about 2 billion Naira. With that, he was able to do alot, change a lot.

But take note, that was not his start up capital. My little experience with cucumber farming has taught me that, If you do what you are doing right, and mantain a high level of integrity, people, banks and corporations will be comfortable investing in your business.

Now alot of people have seen that running an online paytv is possible and they have opened theirs. because somebody has conquered all.

My question is, Can they ever be as big as or bigger than Jason Njoku's Irokotv? The answer is Never! Unless of course they bring in a new innovation or idea. they'll always play catch up to Irokotv.

So... Jason, Thank you for teaching me a lot about start ups in Nigeria through Irokotv. I hope we meet soon. Because I'll love to ask you some more questions.

okay, I think the alaba cabal is like the mile12 cabal we talked about.

Jason conquered all, Firstly he discovered that only 2% of his subscribers Lived in Nigeria. This taught me a big lesson in business. Most times your target costumers don't necessarily end up your biggest costumers. You can be planting for Mile12 and end up selling in Agbara or iyana ipaja. Dont confine yourself to your target market, spread your reach, you will be shocked by the people who desperately need your product.

Secondly, in dealing with cabals, inner caucus, secret circle, whatever you deem fit. The best way to deal with them is by exploiting on their greed (learnt that too from Jason).
For example, Let's say as I am planting cucumber, maybe, I am expecting a 40tonne a day harvest, and I know that mile12 consumes about that number everyday. These guys are marketers, for me to sell my 40tonnes I need to have exclusive cucumber right in mile 12. So what do I do? I set a meeting with all the cucumber marketers in mile12. I know they buy at 2500 a bag and sell at 4000. I'll make tell them I have business for them. I'll supply at 2000 to them, so that they can sell at 4000. Also, they should not pay me, I'll take whatever is left when I return. and collect the money for the bags sold. If the marketer sees he'll make more money from selling my cucumber, which one do you think he'll convince his costumers to go for? Mine or the one from his other suppliers?

Like I have always stressed, The marketer is only interested in his profit ability. No sentiments, No friends. If you don't understand this basic rule of marketing, then you have lost before you even started.

Will I sell at 2000 forever? or will I keep supplying on credit? No! What I need at that time which is the most important part of product sales is costumer acceptance. Once my products is accepted and appreciated by the consumer, I can begin to swing the price, gradually. After costumer acceptance the next step is costumer demand. Once your product is in high demand, then and only then can you start to play with the feelings of the Marketer

Austin234:

I'll take d questions as u numbered them
1. I tackled d pest with d needed pesticide
2. I used organic manure (liquid)
3. I applied water morning and night using my sprayer

Which sprayer sir?
what is the mode of application for the organic manure?

Thanks for your outlined answer, and since I am unable to see your farm, I am just giving out possible causes of cucumber wahala.

"your today's poverty was your yesterday's wealth".

Jason Njoku is one entrepreneur that inspires me alot. He transformed a stagnant industry in Nigeria to a multi million dollar industry. Incase you don't know him, he is the CEO of Iroko Partners, owners of irokotv and Iroking.

I have been privileged to chat up with him. And I asked him just one question. "Do you think you are the first Nigerian to think of an online paytv that shows Nollywood movies?". He looked down thought deep and replied "No".

That got me thinking. What happened to the lot of the other guys who must have thought of their own irokotv? and never got to establish or execute the project?

Let's critically analyse irokotv and let's see who on earth will want to start such a business in Nigeria.

Irokotv is an online movie viewing store.
members subscribe monthly, quarterly or yearly.
They are to watch the movies online
They are to pay the subscription fee online
Irokotv bought exclusive License to air most Nigerian movies online via the producers

That's just a brief roundup of the services offered by irokotv.
1. Looking at it, why would someone ever want to go into a business that requires Nigerians using the internet to see movies? Do you know how long it takes a 5minute video to buffer with our Local Networks. Internet issues alone is enough reason to make anyone have a rethink.

2. How will someone break the alaba cabal? Can someone really get exclusive rights to Nigerian movies. Won't the alaba cabal frustrate him out of business?

3. How will someone handle the issue of online payment. believe it or not, this was an issue in 2009.

4. Why would someone go through all the stress to see a Nigerian movie. When he can get a pirated copy for N150 in alaba?

Before I can comment fully, I'll like to get some answers to some questions.

1. How is the pest activity on the farm?
2. What quantity of Manure was applied on the Land
3. What quantity of water do you apply on the farm and how regularly.

These 3 are the major causes of poor harvest during dry season.

Happy Easter to you all. Today, I'll like to talk a bit on building a Business Empire in Nigeria. I just want to run through 2 very interesting Entrepreneurs. 1. Akin Alabi 2. Jason Njoku. These 2 young men are building the future today. You'll find out the difference between the poor and the Super Rich is just one good or bad decision. It could be a decision where or when or how or even if to sell or buy. Or it could be one meeting attended or one phone call made or even one project executed.

My decision and prayer has always been that I will not make a bad decision that will take the Super away from my Rich or even bring me down to poverty.

I'll come back to talk about Jason and Akin but before then, let me drop a food for thought.
"your today's poverty was your yesterday's wealth"

Lol @Kalusam. This is funny

FarmTech:
Jasper you're really great. Forge ahead.

I see you boss

so, I gave the team in Ibadan a little marketing assignment after their complaint an assignmemt we did together since I am available in Ibadan.

We took a bag of the cucumber and supplied it to retail outlets. We gave them samples for free, told them to sell and give us feedback. Do you know that before we could go round and come back, all the retail outlets we dropped the cucumber had sold it up and they were asking for our numbers for consistent supply.

Just one experiment. We didn't have enough samples to cover all retail outlets, and that was our only regret.

If your product is good and attractive, people will buy.

The producers knows good products because he is the one that made it. The consumers know too, because they are the ones who consume, but the marketers don't know and don't care. All they want is products that is hot cake. In the equation of quality and demand, the marketer plays the least role.

okay, back to my story, I saw in few seconds what we have been doing wrong.

We farmers, have been marketing to the marketer, which is wrong. Every form of marketing has to be to the end user.

If I plant cherry tomatoes for instance, I know cherry tomatoes can not be used to make stew. It's sweet and when I mean sweet, I mean tastes sugary. it's very small in size and very red and is eaten like strawberry, blueberry, grape e.t.c

Should I take such exotic product to mile12 and expect the mallam that distributes tomatoes to buy it from me? NO.

Why? The only people that buy tomatoes from oga mallam are those who use it for stew.

so what do I do? by the time I plant the tomatoes and it starts flowering, I can go to a printing press, print a flyer that talks about the benefits of cherry tomatoes, and why cherry tomatoes should be eaten everyday. There are alot of unique health values to almost every vegetable. Spend money and run massive campaign for 2 weeks. people will silently be asking their tomatoes retail outlet for cherry tomatoes and the retail outlets will start asking their distributors (oga mallam).

Oga mallam gets worried because he can't give what he doesn't have. He starts sweating and starts calling farmers to ask if they have it. Nobody does, at least for the next 4-5months.

Guess who just harvested his first cherry tomatoes and ready to supply? Me! The printer of the posters. The originator of the wahala. .

So, I just step into the market and solve the problem I caused. . count my money and move away.

and the beauty is that before other farmers start planting it, I would have made all the money and necessary supply contacts.

OLAMIMO12:

@jasper7, pls, am growing sugar baby variety of watermelon. it is the dark green one. what are the chances of marketing my watermelon when it is ready? pls useful tips

I have 3 marketing groups that want to market my watermelon. In fact, the smallest of the companies said they'll buy a minimum of 6k balls a week. Sugar baby is a good variety, can you supply 6k balls a week?

Watermelon is highly profitable, what our people lack most is idea. Watermelon is consumed in millions now in Nigeria. believe me when I say that 100hectares of watermelon will not satisfy the South West alone. There are farmers in the North who are cultivating more than that