Level 1
Agriculture as Business
See farming and its neighbours as businesses with customers, costs and risks
Every farm, small food business and agricultural service sells something to someone. This level teaches you to look at your work the way a business owner does: who will pay, what it truly costs you, and what could go wrong.
Farmers, young people thinking about agriculture, and anyone who wants to earn a living in the food and farming sector, with or without land.
How this level is written
The lessons are practical teaching suggestions written by AfricAgric. The reading list is background reading, not the source of every sentence. Examples with numbers are invented and say so. Use the level as a way to think, then check facts and rules for your own place.
What you will learn
- Say who your customers are and what they want from you.
- List all the costs of producing and delivering a product, including your own work and time.
- Explain the difference between selling a product and making a profit.
- Name the main risks of an agricultural business and one sensible response to each.
- Start a simple record that you can use to make better decisions.
Two farmers, one crop
Two neighbours grow the same vegetable on the same amount of land. One sells everything to whoever arrives first at harvest. The other has agreed with a few buyers in advance, knows her costs, and harvests when the buyers are ready. The difference between them is not the soil. It is how each of them thinks about the work as a business. (This story is an illustration, not a real case.)
Parts of this level
- Part 1Farming as a businessWhy it helps to ask who will pay, for what, and what it truly costs.
- Part 2Customers and marketsDifferent buyers want different things. Find out before you produce.
- Part 3Costs and pricesCount every cost before you set a price, including your own work.
- Part 4Risks and recordsExpect problems, plan a response, and keep simple notes.
- WorkbookAll exercises from this level in one place, with space to think and a printable layout.
- QuizCheck what you learned. Answers and short explanations are hidden until you choose to show them.
Not advice
This level is educational. It is not legal, financial, regulatory, nutritional or medical advice. Rules, fees and programmes change, so check every requirement with the authority named before you act.
Background reading
- Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) — International Labour Organization (ILO)
- Developing Sustainable Food Value Chains: Guiding Principles — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2014