Do you want to start a rice farm from scratch? Or you need a sample rice farm business plan template? If YES, then i advice you read on. Aside the Oil industry & gas, and the Technology industry, the agriculture industry is the third best viable industry in the world; especially since the emergence of new technological innovative that have helped to make the food production process easier. There is always a market for the food item you produce as long as the people in that location are familiar with the food.
But for this article, I will focus more on rice farming and how to start your own rice farm; since rice is a widely each food all around the whole, you are rest assured that there is a variable market for your rice products. Before discussing the steps involved with starting a rice farming business, I will mention some factors you need to put in place before you can usefully run your rice farm.
4 Factors to Consider Before Starting a Successful Rice Farming Business
-
Land Space
If you are going into rice farming in commercial quantity, you need a large expanse of land for the farming; a fallow land in the country side should be an ideal land for the business; you need at least 10 acres to start the production in commercial quantity. Also, the land should be easily accessible for easy transportation of the finished products to the final users.
-
Capital
Rice farming business is a capital intensive business; you need cash to lease or buy off several acres or hectares of land that will be used for the business. You also need cash to lease machineries for cultivation and harvesting, and also to build a silo or warehouse for the storage of the rice before the finished product is sold to wholesalers or final consumer.
-
Irrigation System
Rice is best grown in a swampy area, but if by chance you couldn’t get hold of a swampy land, then you have to build a system of irrigation where water can be constantly supplied to the farm in large quantities to allow the rice plants grow well.
-
Hulling Mill
Except if there is a hulling mill near your farm, you need to get hulling machines to remove the hull from the rice seeds.
Starting a Rice Farming Business – Sample Business Plan Template
1. Develop a Business Plan
The first step to take is to develop a rice farming business plan. The plan should include how much capital you need to get stated, the site and location of the farm, how many hectares you will start with, how to locate your buyers, what are your goals for the first few years of starting the farm, will you buy your own equipments? Or will you lease other people’s equipment? Answer to these questions will give you a clear image of what your business will look like.
2. Capital
I mentioned earlier that the rice farming business is a capital intensive business, so you will require a big start up capital to run the business. If you have the capital to invest, that makes it even better. Even if you don’t have the capital but you are certain that you can run the rice farm successfully, you can get a business partner that will invest in the business and also help in the running of the business or you can look for an angel investor that will just invest in the business.
3. Acquire the Land to Be Used for the Farming
You can acquire or buy of the land if you have the money to do so, even if it means making the payment in installments. You can also sign a long term lease agreement with the owner of the land to use the land as a rice farm.
4. Start the Cultivation Process
The rice cultivation process is a long one. You can start sourcing for good rice seedlings to planting the rice in a nursery bed, transplanting it into the farm land after two to four weeks. Secondly, if the land isn’t naturally swampy, you need to make provision for constant supply of water in large quantity to water the plant constantly especially during the early few weeks.
Finally, weeding process. A rice plant is very subtle to weeds, which means that it can easily be chocked by weeds. So you need to apply herbicides to kill the weeds and your need to spray organic fertilizer every few weeks to help the rice plants grow well.
5. Harvesting
It takes about three to four months after planting for the rice plant to be ready for harvest. You know that the rice is ready for harvest when the plant changes from green to brown colour.
6. After Harvest Process
After the harvest, the rice seedling needs under some other processes before it is ready for final consumption
-
Sun Dry the Harvested Rice
After harvesting the rice, you need to sun dry it for three to five days to dry up the remaining moisture; so that the hull can easily be separated from the grain.
-
Hulling
The next after harvest process is to hull the rice; that is separating the hull from grain. You need a hulling and blowing machine to this done.
-
Parboiling
You need to parboil the rice; after which the rice is ready to be distributed to the buyers.
-
Final Packaging
You can decide to package the rice in branded sacks unless you have a contract to supply the rice without sack. The branded sacks should contain the name and location of you farm and also a mobile number customers can call to make inquiries for supply.
7. Getting Buyers
Even before you start the farm, you need to have a few listed of potential customers who will need you finished rice; you can contact them once the rice is ready for them to start placing supplies. You can also contact restaurant and fast food owners in the area to tell them about your rice supply.
At this stage of the article, you should know the whole process involved with starting a rice farm business including factors that must be put into consideration before starting the business.