AN AGRIPRENEUR...WHO IS HE...?

An agripreneur  is an entrepreneur who basically focuses on agricultural products and services. They are a new breed of entrepreneurs that transform their Passion for agriculture into business. They focus on the marketing and distribution of farm outputs. Most people normally associate the word agripreneur with farming but not all agripreneurs are farmers. Some successful agripreneurs do not even have farms yet they earn a fortune . Why? Its because they have identified that there are several forms of opportunities in the field that are not limited to tilling the earth, and loading it with seeds; they have discovered the art of value addition, processing, etc as other viable means of being agriculturists. They are good at identifying these opportunities, they are diligent, resilient, hard working, and they are risk takers; they are agripreneurs.

Seventy percent of employment in Africa comes from agriculture, so you can argue that, in Africa, agriculture and economy are synonymous. In effect, you cannot modernize the economy in Africa without starting with agriculture.” This quote, from Prof. Calestous Juma’s The New Harvest, is yet another reminder of the crucial role that agriculture will play in propelling Africa out of poverty (Shields, Elist. 2013. Africa Policy Magazine, John F Kennedy School of Government: The Key to unlocking Africa’s Multi-Billion Dollar Agriculture Opportunity: Great Managers).I believe that in the next 5-10 years the youth are going to have a strong role to play if
Agricultural development is to be realized.
For this to happen, the youth have to
continue pursing employment and business avenues in the agricultural industry, which as cited above has always been a big employer for Africans. For example here in Uganda, many university graduates are now joining the Farming and Agribusiness movement as a way to earn a living but they are also adopting and using knowledge gained from their various courses to form innovative and different ways of adding value to their crops. I have personally been involved in
agriculture for some time mostly in the field of horticulture and in 2010- 2012 grew some bird eye chili and Jalapenos that I was selling to an export company here in Uganda. But weather changed over first planting season with long dry spells and the
current monopoly of irrigation system
companies here in Uganda. I took the
initiative to research on effective low cost models of irrigation and later picked up some models that were fabricated locally at almost half the cost. I later passed on these models to my colleagues who were interested in low cost irrigation systems and
market knowledge of what to grow. It’s from this that BITEPH Strategic Consulting was started and currently operating in Uganda.

One of the most important qualities of an agripreneur is creativity. The complacent attitude of most agriculturists has so far limited the development of agricultural sector. They persist with the traditional mode of production, with only few daring to be creative and innovative. The reason for this are not far-fetched, agriculture has left that phase, it has been repositioned to yield substantial income but these people lack creativity, capital, unwillingness to take risk, lack of workable plan etc these could all be pointed at, but successful agripreneurs always try to find their way around them. They rise above these challenges to make economic gains for both themselves and their society, whilst providing food for the teeming population, and setting a tone for poverty reduction and development of their societies.
Dare to overcome your challenges....Dare to be creative, Dare to be an agripreneur....

Chris...the young farmer