Farming as a business with Njuki Emmanuel CEO of The Chicken Company Ltd

With Kind introduction from Yusuf Mulinya.

Any sane young entrepreneur carrying out farming as a business is deemed to have committed a certain form of class suicide. I highly suspect this is a result of our education system which hardly inspires us to be farmers. However, I also suppose that the current breed of farmers in business is also not particularly an inspiring kind - or the kind you’d want to have on your company advisory board.

But as the scales and tidal waves begin to change, as the need for food rises together with population and an opportunity to profit, farming is becoming more and more appealing. The current inflationary levels are opening up our minds to the fact that food security is the true independence. One cannot claim to be independent if one has no food security.

By food security, we mean households having access to affordable, sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet the dietary needs for an active and healthy life. Isn’t it shocking to realize that Uganda, a country with the largest organic soil percentage in the world, a country gifted by nature, a country in which one only requires a ‘do nothing guide to farming’ for one to succeed, can be a country without food security? How is this possible?

Our podcast with Mr. Njuki is timely. Not only does he address the concern or the need for us to view farming with a keen business eye, he addresses the key challenge of facing the second class citizenship and how to deal with it plus opportunities involved. The future billionaires will be food billionaires - he quotes Al Gore.

In the last part, we highlighted current issue of sustainability. To a certain extent, we need to grow some food for ourselves, and not outsource the entire operation to farmers in business. The main criticism I have found with this issue is that not all of us can be farmers, we specialized into various professions, so this is unworkable. It is my sincere opinion that if we find it hard to carry out some of the farming ourselves, or difficult to practice farming as a business, then perhaps we should consider investing in farmers who are willing to work. A vast majority of farmers, like any other businessmen, are facing capital and short term financing problems. If we found ways of partnering with them to form investment partnerships, they would be able to expand capacity, and we would get returns on investment both in the form of food and in dollars. A win win situation is definitely good business.

Enjoy the podcast.Farming as a business with Njuki Emmanuel CEO of The Chicken Company Ltd