Confronting the Side-Hustle Culture in Farming (2024)

Most, if not all, employed professionals in Africa have one thing in common—and that is, a side hustle. By definition, a side hustle is an income generating activity that one does to supplement their main source of income. For working professionals, a side hustle is a fallback plan in case you lose your job. A side hustle can be based on a hobby, but it can also be a way to try your hand in a business which you hope to grow in future. The internet is full of side-hustle ideas and gurus providing advice on how to make millions by working just a few hours a day. As the side hustle culture has grown, so has its influence on agripreneurship. While motivations for getting into farming differ, many weekend farmers view their farming venture as a side hustle. But how good of a side hustle is farming?

The answer depends on the scale of the farming venture but from what we have seen in engaging with weekend farmers to advance sustainable agripreneurship, farming is generally not a great choice for a side hustle and here’s why:

1.You can’t count on making quick and easy money from farming. To be successful in farming, you need to think long term, it usually takes several seasons to establish and grow a successful farming venture. This means you must be committed to sticking it out through the down-years and be comfortable with gradual growth which is counterintuitive to a side-hustle mentality.

2.Successful farming requires full-time attention or investing in a robust management system. As the owner of the business, you have to be prepared to invest your time in growing your farming enterprise. You can get away with delegating, but it requires you to hire a qualified farm manager and establish sound business management systems for the venture to be profitable. We have come across too many weekend farmers who neither have the time to invest in farming nor the systems to run a farm via delegation. There are just too many things that can go wrong when the business owner does not pay full attention to running the farming enterprise.

3.Sustainability is critical in the success of any farming enterprise; you just can’t be in it to make money. This is especially true when it comes to environmental sustainability which is easy to overlook when one is focused only on the financial gains. Being a successful farmer requires one to be a faithful steward of the natural resources on which the farming business is built upon.

4.Sustainable farming often entails a steady learning curve and a commitment to practical learning. Farming can be highly contextual and knowledge intensive and this is another reason why it requires patience. You have to be a student of nature and be willing to endure the elements for the sake of learning. The most successful farmers are life-time practical learners who have inherited invaluable knowledge from previous generations.

5.The demands of farming can be unpredictable, it does not mould itself to accommodate a nine-to-five schedule. To be a successful farmer, you have to be on-call when need arises and as the weather dictates for example if it is time for planting or harvesting.

But does this mean that a working professional should not invest in farming? No, the point is they have to be prepared and know what they are signing up for. You can work a nine-to-five, but you must invest in systems that will allow you to delegate and effectively provide remote oversight. At SANEWOPA-Malawi , we love to help weekend farmers create customized solutions for effective business management and remote oversight. We understand the challenges that weekend farmers face in ensuring viability of their farming enterprise and we want to work closely with you to troubleshoot, experiment and adopt the most suitable strategies for each context. If you are a weekend farmer struggling to make your farming venture work, we are here to help, simply e-mail us at [email protected] and we’ll reach out to get the balling rolling.