In 2019 when I decided to go into farming, I was confident about the whole process.
What could go wrong? I thought. I was still in Uni back then and I thought it would be a good start to my entrepreneurial journey. Not a start per say – I had attempted other things and failed but that will be a story to be told another day.
I had an aunty (May her soul rest in peace) who was generous. She offered me money and encouraged me to do something useful with it – start a business perhaps.
I reached out to a guy I knew who was into farming– told him of my plans and he said we could work something out.
I travelled all the way to meet him(somewhere between Sege and Ada) and we discussed what it would take.
We decided to get land, plough it, spread cow dung over it and allow the rains to fall on it before planting anything.
All these things took a bigger part of the money I had then, but I knew I would make more eventually so I wasn’t worried.
Remember I was still in Uni in Accra so I couldn’t afford to be there all the time– I only went there on weekends. The guy managed the place.
Many things happened, but let’s skip to the harvest part.
First Harvest
We harvested the first yield successfully – we got about five boxes . Then a couple more over the subsequent weeks.
Anyone who is familiar with tomato farming knows that new ones get riped every week so you could keep harvesting for the entire season.
The picking was first done on a weekend but the guy managing the place said those who bought from the farms usually came around on weekdays so I missed the subsequent sales.
People!
The price he told me they were buying it at was so heartbreaking. I started to do my calculations and I knew even if we harvested the whole season, I still wouldn’t make half of the money I poured in the soil.
I considered bringing it to Accra and had it sold but I didn’t know who I would be selling it to. Someone told me shops like Shoprite could buy but I didn’t have the guts to approach anyone there. I simply hadn’t done my research before going into the whole tomato farming business.
I hadn’t thought about what would become of the harvest.
It would have been a different story if I was out on the farm to monitor the selling because neighboring farmers told me the price they sold it at and it was half what my manager told me but I let it go.
The first season ended and we had to wait for another season.(That’s one thing you should consider when going into farming. Consider irrigation because if you would have to wait on the rains, you might as well not do it at all).
Remember I had lost about 60 percent of the money I took into the business in the first season. But the land was rented for five years so a part of me was hoping we would make it in the coming years.
Year Two
Second year came, only for this guy to tell me we had to repeat the whole process – plough, refill with cow dung, etc. Bro! I’m not saying he was lying but this headache again? No wahala.
I poured more money into the ground– hoping for the best. Refusing to learn from my mistakes – when he says money for fertilizer; I would send it. Money to employ farm hands; sent! I was just pumping the money in.
I stopped going there every weekend. Partly because I felt discouraged by the first season. And partly because I was getting tired with combining school and the whole thing.
Ladies and gentlemen, let’s just say I finally woke up to reality and decided to quit. The first season’s harvest repeated itself and I just couldn’t continue like that– I had lost more money.
Too much for a University student.
I decided to abandon the land. He could keep it for the three years remaining. I wasn’t going to keep riding on hope.
The loss took a big toll on my mental health. I partially withdrew from Facebook because I couldn’t afford to answer questions.
When people ask me how the farm is going, I tell them it’s the biggest investment I’ve made by far because really— it’s taught me lessons no entrepreneurship course will ever teach me. And I made sure to learn it well. If I ever decide to invest in tomato farming, I know what to do and what not to do.
Dede – Accra
