Others go into farming after retiring from their jobs and wanted a kind of slow-paced activity less demanding than the job/s they were used to.
Most think farming as a low-tech job which demands less education and skills from the owner or manager.
Nothing can be farther from the truth.
You need not be an agriculturist to appreciate the intricacies and the economics behind farming. Yes, everybody can farm if you call throwing a seed to the ground, covering it, watering the crops, weeding, harvesting, etc., farming.
But the question is can you make enough money from farming in a sustainable way?
If you go to developed farming communities like those in Israel, US or Europe, you will realize what farming is all about. The farmers in there makes more money than a city employee and are probably one of the richest in their community.
The only way to make a farming operation sustainable and competitive vis-a-vis competitors abroad is to apply the latest in agri technology. Even under a low-labor cost setting, the use of technology could still be more profitable since machines are more reliable and efficient and more reliable than humans in many aspects of farming. Farming is a non-stop factory. There is no main switch to shut down the photosysthetic activities of the crop or the metabolism of the farm animals in the event of labor problems or financial difficulties. That's why 24/7, you need to monitor many activities in the farm and make sure that what's to be done are always being done.
There are many aspects of farming that can be more economically and efficiently done my automatically operated equipment like feeders and irrigation systems. I am not saying this because I an agricultural engineer. I have tried farming and am fully convinced that mechanization is the only way to do things more efficiently - from feeding the goats to watering the crops.
A farmer has to be an engineer, a biologist, a chemist, a marketer and an economist rolled into one. From constructing the farm facilities, managing labor, conditioning the soil, up to the point where you need to sell your yield profitably - that require a vast multi-disciplinary set of knowledge and skills. It's not a part time job either. And neither is it for people who have no capital for the cost of the initial investments.
Thus, I need to save first a lot of money to develop my farm. And when I start to develop it, I have to be staying there 24/7 to ensure the suceess of the operation. That, I believe is the only way to suceed in farming,
