The biggest revenue in agriculture may not be on the farms.

[Antotena]

This situation isn't the same in every country; there are places where intermediaries earn significantly more. Because they control the entire market, they can set the price they want and buy the products. This puts producers in a difficult position, and production is gradually decreasing.

Imagine you make very little profit when selling your produce, while those who buy it from you make a much larger profit. In this case, producers need to make a sufficient profit to continue production. Intermediaries making much larger profits can be a major obstacle to production.

There is something about agricultural intermediaries that I hate so much even though people will say business is business. You know one of the general problems of farmers, they lack storage and they don't invest on them, so as soon as they produce they sell immediately to intermediaries at cheap price because during the harvest period, the prices used to be low until after harvest, they buy and stock and put on high price when the produce are expensive in the market.

Some farmers sell everything and use the money to do other things and then struggle to buy another one to eat and feed the family. There is this problem in west African farmers, the smart ones that farm rice, beans, corn, and other basic produce keep the one that will sustain from the beginning of the harvest till the next harvest and sell the rest of the produce.

[Emitdama]

This is where many of the biggest agricultural opportunities are hiding. A farmer may work for months to produce perishable commodities, but without proper storage and access to buyers, a large portion of that value can disappear within days, obviously the bigger problem is in preservation, processing and distribution.

Theoretically we can casually say input determines what we should expect as an output, unfortunately in the lines of agriculture your output will determine your input! I say this because as a farmer in this case, you already know what grade of a commodity you want to achieve and to get there you know that using x & y as your raw materials you will get xy and not ab, BM etc so in short planning is very vital to know what results you want to expect.. failing this small task guarantees failure even before getting started!

I am not a farmer myself, so while I do have a farmer to ask a question, instead of asking it to ChatGPT, which would give a paper answer but not a life-experience answer. I always wondered: do you make a deal before you even plant the crop? Like, let's say you are going to plant something, have a huge piece of land, do you go around asking people what they would pay for? And make calculations based on that?

Because if that is the case, then it is great, X company tells you this much money for this much corn, and Y company tells you this much money for this much wheat, etc etc. And you calculate whatever the biggest profit would be. But if you do none of that, and you just plant it, and THEN you make a deal by trying to find buyers, it feels like that could be very risky.

[BRINIRHA]

Without owning hectares of farmland, one can lucratively participate through; commodity aggregation, solar powered cold chain activities, packaging and labelling, produce sorting and grading, irrigation services, farm to market logistics and even a digital platform connecting farmers to buyers. Just to mention a few. All these may already exist, but it just points towards an untapped tapestry.

Surely the lucrative section of agriculture may not be tied to the farm land itself, the potential of the sector is enormous, in both developed and developing economies.

Agriculture can indeed be a wet field to benefit especially for now agriculture is indeed one of the things that will not possibly be replaced because it refers to staple foods. It's just undeniable that for now agriculture is not too popular, including for Gen Z.

In my place, now farmers or people who are engaged in agriculture are almost largely dominated by parents because millennials or Gen Z always consider that this work is quite tiring when if examined further although the risks remain but the benefits that can be obtained from agriculture can be much greater than those who work in the office for 8 hours a day.

[$crypto$]

In other country agriculture is one of the biggest earnings because they are the one who harvest all of the foods we have in our table but these are only into a good countries, right now here in my country in the Philippines, these farmers are one of the poor, the large business sectors are buying their lands and use a iron hand just only to get their properties and ending is the government does not support the farmers at all instead they make them poorer, they import goods from other countries and let their community suffer even though the price is more cheaper into our local. Imagine monthly once they harvest its over supply sometimes hoard just to tell with the government its lacking of supply and they import more because of the cut of the officials. I feel sorry for them.

Farmers in developed countries have vast land so that the harvest is quite abundant, they can also be in cooperation with large distributors of factory processing so as to get a reasonable price.

Unlike small farmers, they only rely on intermediaries so that the crops can make quick money, while farmers like this do not have connections to several large companies.

While the role of the government is also sometimes not pro-people, not the increasing quality of local farmers but what we see is that the government imports more like it doesn't care about farmers in its own country.

[henmark]

I agree with you OP that people who benefits more from agricultural produce are not always the farmers that puts in most of the work on their land, sow and harvest after months of hard labor. I have a friend who is into poultry, he said that the work is very tasking but in terms of profit that it is the whole sellers that buys it from them and supplies to the retailers and restaurants that gains the most, they don't put as much work as the farmers but they gain so much more. I also know somebody who is into Cocoa farming, he said that after putting in all the hard labor labor that is is the government approved distributors that buys it from them that makes bulk profit.

For a farmers to make it big according to their capacities is to also be involved in the distribution channels of their products, if they can do it that means that they can become rich.

To be fair, I am not really seeing the problem there on the basis of how much work and capital is required on each task. Let's put it into perspective, a farmer owns a farm and raises chickens. What does he do? He has a place where all the chickens are, wakes up, feeds them, collects the eggs, puts the eggs in a basket and goes back to normal life. There is more to it, like giving them medicine to make sure they are not sick, etc, but that's roughly his all day.

What does a big conglomerate do? Well they hire truck drivers, hire truckers, hire sales people, buy locations, hire employees there, all of this, so they can go around, buy the eggs from a thousand different farmers and then get those eggs, with the trucks, and then bring them to their shops, and sell there, so if you look at it from work and capital side, it makes more sense for Walmart to make more money on a single egg than the farmer that got the egg.

[Jatiluhung]

Farming is very lucrative in every sector, so categorizing only those that process farm products as the farmers that makes the most revenue is wrong. We also have those that are into animal farming, so do you think that these set of people that process farm products makes more revenue than the animal farmers?
 No, because animals like pigs, dogs and dock foul that give birth to a large numbers of offspring are way more lucrative than those that are processing farm product or those planting it. I have not even spoken of chicken's that lay eggs you can decide to sell into the market, especially if you deals on layers. So in essence of what am trying to say is that agriculture is profitable all round as long as you you know how to make the best out of every opportunity while at it.

I think that both crop farming and animal husbandry are quite similar in terms of their potential for profit and loss. Both have their own advantages, depending on the type of animal being raised and the type of crop being grown.

Take the risks in animal husbandry, for example. They’re more complex than in crop farming. If you look into the costs of raising laying hens, you’ll start to understand what I mean. That’s because the profits from raising laying hens aren’t nearly as high as they seem. Farmers may only start to see significant profits if they raise these hens on a large scale.

When raising laying hens, we even have to routinely vaccinate the hens, provide a balanced supply of vitamins, feed them the right portions, and much more. Not to mention the higher labor costs.

In farming, the biggest risks are just pests and extreme weather. And those are much easier to control without needing a lot of equipment. It just depends, once again, on the type of crops being grown and the type of animals being raised. But in my opinion, both carry the same risks and potential. However, raising livestock is more complicated than farming.

[DYOR+BTC]

Surely the lucrative section of agriculture may not be tied to the farm land itself, the potential of the sector is enormous, in both developed and developing economies.

That’s right, the real people that make money from agriculture is the investors who buy the goods with farmers and store them for sometimes when the demand is low and the supply is high, then bring it out for sell when there is a high demand and a very low supply since the farmers have sold their farm products, the marketers will now sell at a very high price and that’s where they have their money from.

But some farmers that have money keep their farm products for long so that they can sell when the goods are scarce in the market to make more profit from the goods; and these set of farmers usually make more money than those farmers that sell immediately after harvest.

Farm products are one of the most profitable business that makes investors get richer according his level of investment, farmers products are bought and stored till when demand is high before selling those products to the final consumers but this never .means those buyers makes more profits that the farmer.
Among all I don't believe that buyers makes more profits that the farmers themselves, as a buyer there are many more expenses waiting before the same goods gets to the final consumer.
At times buyers buys at a lower price and store for its price to increase and before that period of increment the farmer have invested more that will generate more profit from that same money stocked for value increment.

[Pi-network314159]

A farmer who farms a perishable goods should be able to provide a preservative measures to help enhanced a good preservation so that he will not lose, a farmer that didn't prepare before embarking on a perishable farming business is bound to fail.

You're right but there are perishable goods that cannot be preserved for a long time which means that even if the farmer make provision for preservatives, if they are not sold within the shortest period of time, they can still spoil and the farmer will lose a lot of money. For example, perishable goods like banana do not have any preservatives when it is ripe which implies that if it is not sold within a couple of days after ripe, it will rotten.

You are right mate, but when a farmer knows the type of perishable good he/she is selling, they will not allow it to get spoilt in their hands. For example something like banana or fresh pepper, without preserving them, they can make provisions for buyers who are willing to take those goods to come over and buy gradually. Like people that sell banana in my area, they don't allow banana to ripe in their plantation before selling. What they do is to wait for their bananas to gey matured without ripping, they call buyers to come and cut them by themselves. Not them cutting it without seeing buyers. When my grandmother was selling Orange, she doesn't pluck it and keep for distribution, she calls the buyers and sell it to them on trees, the buyers will be coming to pluck them gradually till she sells all. But if she had pluck all at once, it may have resulted to loses because the buyer may probably not be able to sell them fast. So in conclusion, a business person should know the tactics that will make them recover and this I have explained is one thing people with perishable goods does always to secure their business if preservative does work on those type of perishable goods.

[coin-investor]

This is where many of the biggest agricultural opportunities are hiding. A farmer may work for months to produce perishable commodities, but without proper storage and access to buyers, a large portion of that value can disappear within days, obviously the bigger problem is in preservation, processing and distribution.

It's unfortunate that the ones who produce the goods are the ones exploited or being shortchanged; the farmers are the producers, but their profit is just a small fraction of the middlemen who provide preservation, processing, and distribution, so when it hits the market, it's triple the farm gate price.

And most of the time, the farmers' products suffer from natural calamities while the middlemen are just waiting for the farmers to sell what they produce.

So yes, the biggest revenue is being handled by the middlemen because they have the logistic they are the ones dictating the price.
 

[abhiseshakana]

This is where many of the biggest agricultural opportunities are hiding. A farmer may work for months to produce perishable commodities, but without proper storage and access to buyers, a large portion of that value can disappear within days, obviously the bigger problem is in preservation, processing and distribution.

Without owning hectares of farmland, one can lucratively participate through; commodity aggregation, solar powered cold chain activities, packaging and labelling, produce sorting and grading, irrigation services, farm to market logistics and even a digital platform connecting farmers to buyers. Just to mention a few. All these may already exist, but it just points towards an untapped tapestry.

I totaly agree with your opinion, agricultural is wider than only farming and i thing the biggest potential fruitful margin are by solving bottleneck throughthout the supplychain and preplant application, funding and preservation after harvesting.

War between US Israel-Iran which influence fertilizer industry and also a narrative that US uses climate damaging weapons to prevent rain in Iran make me realized how fragile upstream agricultural industry and many country in the world make specific strategies for food sovereignity so they can feed its people with less dependence on external parties. From these phenomenon we can find that agricultural is one strategic part of food value chain. For having food sovereignity, a country need to have independence on seed, fertilizer, commodity trading, logistic and distribution route, food processing or even mastering trademarks.

From above explanation every people can take part on food business based on their capability wether from agriculture where food originates to distribution delivers agricultural materials to the hands of consumers. You can imagine how fruitfull the business if farmer can study, understand and be able to master several strategic points for their own farm, which means farmers prospereous.

Which happen in many country, farmer can feed people but many of them life poor, because they only farm and often harvest pricess fall, many disappointed farmers often throw away their harvest rather than sell it to middlemen as a form of protest to the government and also the people who do not appreciate their hard work for months.

So from my point of view agricultural is an ecosystem, there are geopolitical proverb who control food control people which i think a very important economic reality which many of us didn't notice. On individual level we can try to build our family food sovereignity by startinggrow our own food.

[programmer3666]

One of the most successful entrepreneurs in agriculture may never plant a single seed. Whenever people talk about making money from agriculture, the first advice is usually; "acquire a land and start farming." But farming is only one part of a much larger agricultural economy.

Before food moves from the farm to your table, it must be harvested, collected, sorted, preserved, transported, processed, packaged, finance and distributed. And at every stage of that journey, there is a problem waiting for someone to solve profitably.
The farmer produces the crops. Who prevents the produce from spoiling? Who transports it to other areas? Who processes it into a higher value product? Who supplies the machinery? Who connects the farmer to reliable buyers?

This is where many of the biggest agricultural opportunities are hiding. A farmer may work for months to produce perishable commodities, but without proper storage and access to buyers, a large portion of that value can disappear within days, obviously the bigger problem is in preservation, processing and distribution.

Without owning hectares of farmland, one can lucratively participate through; commodity aggregation, solar powered cold chain activities, packaging and labelling, produce sorting and grading, irrigation services, farm to market logistics and even a digital platform connecting farmers to buyers. Just to mention a few. All these may already exist, but it just points towards an untapped tapestry.

Surely the lucrative section of agriculture may not be tied to the farm land itself, the potential of the sector is enormous, in both developed and developing economies.

The traditional believe is that agriculture starts and ends with farming, but the real money is usually in the middle, handling what happens after the crops are successfully harvested. A farmer can grow the best produce, but if it rots before reaching the market, all that effort goes to waste. You will see countries like Saudi Arabia and Dubai. They don't grow much themselves because of their desert environment, which is why Saudi is always looking to buy soya beans and other type of  grains from African countries like Nigeria and Dubai consistently imports ginger and other spices to meet demand of their own population. They don't farm, they focus on trade, process, package and distribute. Someone with a simple van can make more money transporting tomatoes from village to city than the person who grew them.

[aioc]

The farmer produces the crops. Who prevents the produce from spoiling? Who transports it to other areas? Who processes it into a higher value product? Who supplies the machinery? Who connects the farmer to reliable buyers?

Unfortunately, in many countries, farmers are not part of the logistics; they just produce, and all the processes to get the goods to market fresh are handled by third parties. Small independent farmers sell their goods to third parties; these third parties are the ones making the profit and dictate the price.

So in many countries, farmers are poor and rely on government subsidies and loans when their harvest is hit by a typhoon; if you're going to involve yourself in agriculture, it's preferable to be in the logistics industry.

[Ishicryptic]

Except for the big-time mechanized farmers who owns large hecters of land that are very rich the other medium and small scale farmers are mostly not rich, they mostly concentrate on production and sells their produce to middlemen who takes care of the logistics and supply, these middlemen are the ones that makes most of the profits while the farmers does most of the work. As long as the farmers continue to concentrate only on their farm works they cannot be rich because they are farmers not business men who knows how give proper services and knows how to maximize profit. To become rich somebody must have a mindset of the rich, you have to explore how you can capitalize on different areas of your business to get profit from and become involved in them so that most of the revenues will be coming to you.