Farming is a full time job which needs these skill sets

Farming is not easy. It requires a lot of experience and practical skills in doing the various kinds of farm work and the ability to teach others how to do this work. When you make up your mind to get into farming either as a full time job or a side hustle you need to have the following things;

Business Management Skills

How do you manage your farm? Do you run it as a business or just a hobby? The role and structure of the farm business in modern agriculture is changing.  For you to have a profitable and sustainable agribusiness venture then you need to view it as a business. You need to get good training in business management which will help you take your farming business to the next level.

Approaching farming a business will give you a clear road map of where you want to go as a farmer.

Crop and Livestock Farming Skills

Farmers venturing into arable farming require knowledge on how to grow crops, use fertilizers, control pests and diseases. If you are keeping livestock you need to know how to raise farm animals. You cannot succeed in farming if you do not have these skills. With all the success stories surrounding farming in Kenya these days many people are investing blindly without doing proper research. They forget that farming is just like any other job and needs you to have certain skill sets to get things moving. Find agricultural training near you and prep yourself before investing.

Maintenance of soil fertility

This involves all operations, practices, and treatments used to protect soil and enhance its performance.

Soil management practices that affect soil quality

• Controlling traffic on the soil surface helps to reduce soil compaction, which can reduce aeration and water infiltration.
• Cover crops keep the soil anchored and covered in off-seasons so that the soil is not eroded by wind and rain.
• Crop rotations for row crops alternate high-residue crops with lower-residue crops to increase the amount of plant material left on the surface of the soil during the year to protect the soil from erosion.
• Nutrient management can help to improve the fertility of the soil and the amount of organic matter content, which improves soil structure and function.
• Tillage, especially reduced-tillage or no-till operations limit the amount of soil disturbance while cultivating a new crop, and help to maintain plant residues on the surface of the soil for erosion protection and water retention.

Advantages of soil management

• Maintain soil fertility
• Restore soil fertility
• Make the agricultural process an economic one
• Help increase yield

Few industries require such a wide range of training and experience. Farming is not simply growing a particular crop or feeding a certain kind of livestock.

It is an all-the-year-round business, involving the production of various plants and animals and the successful organization of the varying farm enterprises into a smoothly working unit.