* If your goal is to get wealthy through agriculture, don’t focus on becoming a better farmer — focus on becoming a better entrepreneur
* Too many people are obsessed with the technical side of farming — soil pH, feed ratios, crop spacing — while completely ignoring the money side
* Be an agripreneur, not a farmer. That means your job isn’t to know everything about the farm — it’s to build a business that uses farming to generate income, create jobs, and scale
By Duncan Mlanjira
Benedicto Bena Nkhoma — a seasoned business motivational speaker with a large following, who has passion towards mindset change in the way people conduct daily business — contends that for one to be successful from farming, they should “STOP reading farming books [but] read business books instead”.
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Bena Nkhoma, who retired having served in the banking industry for over 25 years, posted this on his Facebook page which he uses to motivate his compatriots on business ideas, saying: “Let me save you time and money — if your goal is to get wealthy through agriculture, here’s a secret; don’t focus on becoming a better farmer, focus on becoming a better entrepreneur.
“Too many people are obsessed with the technical side of farming — soil pH, feed ratios, crop spacing — while completely ignoring the money side. That’s why most small-scale farmers remain broke or barely break even.
“Be an agripreneur, not a farmer. That means your job isn’t to know everything about the farm — it’s to build a business that uses farming to generate income, create jobs, and scale.”
He maintains that such agripreneurs “can and should hire people who read farming books, the ones who obsess over fertilizers, animal feed, and livestock cycles — that’s their job. Your job is to run the business, make strategic decisions, and sign the cheques”.
Malawi’s traditional maize storage system
The philanthropist, who loves giving back through motivational and inspirational talks and financing projects that impacts communities, thus breaks it down that universities and agricultural colleges are releasing thousands of graduates every year.
But “do you honestly think all of them will start their own farms or businesses? No. They’re looking for jobs. That’s your opportunity. Don’t compete with them — employ them.
“I don’t need to know the biological processes happening inside a pig to run a profitable piggery. I need to know how to calculate margins, manage staff, expand operations, and find buyers at scale — that’s the game.
“Stop doing ‘projects’ like it’s a school assignment. Run a farming business. Projects don’t scale — businesses do.”
Bena Nkhoma gave an example of an individual once suggested to him that she was planning to go to agricultural college so that she could run a profitable farm one day, which made him scoff it off — “not because she can’t succeed, but because she’s walking into the wrong door”.
“To disrupt an industry, you don’t need to be an insider— you need to think differently. I don’t follow the rules, I follow the money. I do what works.”
He emphasised that one doesn’t “need more agricultural knowledge” but “rather business knowledge” by reading books on sales, operations, marketing, cashflow, and leadership.
“Learn how to negotiate, systemise, and scale; understand branding and customer psychology; master logistics and supplier networks; use tech to automate, track, and grow your enterprise.
“That’s how you turn chickens into cash flow; that’s how you turn cabbages into capital; that’s how you stop working for the land and make the land work for you — thank me later, he concluded.
Bena Nkhoma Facebook has a huge following and the post immediately attracted responses that reached over 600 by this afternoon, with Vuko Vuyani Dubisiko hinting that the suggestions raised could work if one spotted “a farm that requires commercial transformation and offer them management, sales and marketing solutions”.
“However, if you want these applications to yield success, you will still have to invest in knowledge of the theory and practical procedures before you can strategise further.
“If you hire skilled labour, you would still have to be able to assess their level of competency, monitor their input vs implements and commodity, to achieve desired outputs [and] for positive sales, you must understand the overall process of production.
“Also we must take into account most small or startup farmers do not often have a steady budget to employ formal skilled labour — so, I say, wholistic knowledge is key.”
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John Mnyehere Chipeta agreed, saying: “However learing about the value chain you are engaged in, as an agriprenuar, is a must — it will help you ground your business decision making”, while Wongani Mtika, also in agreement with Bena Nkhoma, said: “I don’t follow the rules — I follow the money, I do what works. You don’t need more agricultural knowledge, you need business knowledge.
Chawanangwa Mkandawire chipped in to say that “agri-preneurs shouldn’t focus on the technical aspect of farming but rather put more emphasis on the financial aspect of it. Yes, this is wisdom, but not for farmers who own and live in the environment they work on”.
Jack Villa observed that “not everyone can afford to hire the experts as Bena Nkhoma suggests, adding: ”In the beginning, you are the expert, the planner, the marketer, the everything.
“So yes, be an agripreneur; read the business books; think scale; think profit — but don’t throw away the farming books; that knowledge protects your investment. Smart farmers learn the farm, smart agripreneurs learn both.”
Agriculture commercialisation projects
Daniel Manduwa chose to differ, observing that “there’s a lot of information missing” in Bena Nkhoma analysis: “It is well written, has some truth but it can mislead someone. I wish it was as easy as it has been written and read.”
He thus explained that “there are a lot of aspects that go into farming that are enterprise-specific. A blanket advice as depicted in the presuppositions made in the post are predicated upon a premise that having enough resources you’d be a successful agripreneur — by wholly relying on those with expertise through service/compensation exchange.
“When you go pa ground you’ll find that things are different in our context and farming is closer to betting than it is to entrepreneurship.“
Felix Yola responded to Manduwa, saying his takeaway point from Bena Nkhoma’s analysis is ‘be an entrepreneur’: “Entrepreneurs are strategic leaders who have the art of assembling the best team to accomplish their goals. They don’t need to be experts in the field, but can hire experts to do their job expertly.”
Tanto Cylas joined in to warn that some of the people being talked about hiring “will either exploit you if you don’t know your way around the crop you are cultivating — that is if you actually get any. Most experienced farmers now prefer starting small, doing their things from grown-up than working for any one.
“The right thing is, learn the business that comes with agriculture and learn the farming itself. That will help you a whole lot. Farming is not as simple as everyone makes it sound. So if you are getting into farming, learn the business part as well as the technical part, trust me you will need it.”
Mavis Thandizo Kanjadza shared her experience in farming, saying: “I knew the business side of things but gaps in the production/scientific side of things let me down. It was hard to find technical know-how with a lot of dishonesty and shortcuts in potential partners. Lessons were learnt though — will come back strong.”
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To which Ethel Kansawa Chimpeni agreed saying the greatest challenge is to find “the technocrat who is actually a technocrat — not just a papered individual willing to take risks at your expense”.
Efunkanbi Sunday Olufemi suggested that “both farming books and business books must be mastered”, which Trevor Phumi Libamba agreed saying, “business skills are super important but having some farming knowledge, especially when starting out, really helps. It saves you from a lot of mistakes and makes you a better manager”.
Moshe More said: “I think somehow you are losing the point — agriculture is not about short cuts, or quick success, it is about farming. Know your crops, time to plant, seed variety, market, and logistics.
“It is all rolled into one. Yes, basic knowledge about finance, marketing one still require but not the end to justify the means.”
On his part, which summed it up, Abel William Chilenga said: “Knowing both sides is profound. You need to have, at least, knowledge of farming as well. You can’t just depend on someone. These days balancing the knowledge is vital.”
