7 Agricultural Business Ideas For Ladies And Women

Introduction

Are you venturing into the agriculture industry? Here are some agricultural business ideas in Nigeria that you can start almost immediately.

In this blog post, you’ll discover 7 of the most profitable/ money-making agriculture business ideas in Nigeria and the requirements for starting them.

So, let’s dive right in.

Agricultural Business Ideas For Ladies – An Overview of the Agricultural Industry in Nigeria

Before you start an agriculture business, it makes sense to understand the agricultural industry and its business potential.

Generally, agriculture is the art and science of cultivating plants and rearing livestock.

The agricultural industry in Nigeria is broadly divided into four sectors which are;

• Crop production: This is the largest sector as it accounts for about 87.5% of the agricultural sector output.
• Livestock Farming: This is the second-largest sector in the agricultural industry, and it accounts for 8.1% of agricultural output in the industry.
• Fishing: Occupies The fishing sector occupies 3.2% of the agriculture industry and is one of the most lucrative businesses anyone can start in this present period.
• Forestry: covers 1.1 % of the agricultural industry.

It’s no news that agriculture is one of the most profitable industries in Nigeria. It accounts for over 20% of Nigeria’s GDP.

Not only that, it encompasses so many sectors.

Thereby making the agricultural business a huge market industry.

What does this mean for you as someone looking to start a business in this industry?

It simply means that, since it’s a large industry, there are so many things you could do.

All you need to do is to find that one business idea that’s just right for you.

For instance, some agricultural business ideas such as poultry farming, and palm oil production are mostly suited for ladies.

Note, however, that the agriculture business is not gendered-specific.

It’s just that some agriculture business ideas are not so suited for ladies to handle because of the strenuous activities involved.

Also, if you’re looking for a side business to supplement your income, there are many aspects of agriculture that can inspire you with side business ideas to start right away.

Let’s find out some of these business ideas.

7 Money-Making Agriculture Business Ideas in Nigeria

When we think of agriculture in general, every aspect of it brings money in but there are some agricultural business ideas that pour out more money than the rest.

Here you’ll find businesses in the agriculture industry that you can start right away and make money from them almost immediately.

You’ll also see the requirements for starting, advantages, and drawbacks of each business.

Let’s dive right in!

Poultry Farming – One of the Most Profitable Agricultural Business Ideas in Nigeria

This is one of the most popular and lucrative agricultural business ideas in Nigeria.

Poultry farming involves rearing domestic birds such as chickens, geese, turkeys, ducks, etc., for commercial purposes.

Even more, these domestic birds can be used for meat or eggs, primarily for commercial purposes.

Besides egg and meat production, there are other lucrative aspects to poultry farming that you can focus on.

Some of these include poultry feed production, manufacturing and selling poultry farming equipment, chicken and egg distribution, selling hatcheries, etc.

For this post, our focus is on rearing poultry birds for meat or egg production.

Poultry farming is no doubt one of the most lucrative agriculture businesses in Nigeria.

This is because of its huge market size.

It is discovered that an average Nigerian consumes about 700 pieces of eggs annually.

Even more, almost every home in Nigeria eats poultry meat (Chicken and Turkey are the most common ones)

Annually,  this consumption rate increases due to factors such as the ban on the importation of meat and eggs, the desire to adopt healthier dietary options, and more.

Given this, we can say without a doubt that the poultry farming business is very lucrative and will continue been so for a long time.

Therefore, choosing this agriculture business idea will be a profitable decision.

Requirements

• For meat (chicken production), you’ll need Broilers
• For egg production, you’ll need layers
• Shelter for the birds
• Feeding and medication for the birds
• Target customers/Market for your poultry products

Benefits

• Less capital requirement
• No special skills required
• Huge return on investment within the shortest period
• Large market demand

Drawbacks/Challenges

• Birds are easily affected by environmental conditions
• Disease outbreaks/parasites could lead to a huge loss of birds

Every business has its challenges/risk factors.

The benefits of the poultry farming business outweigh its drawbacks.

Nevertheless, with little capital and no special skills required, you can start a poultry farming business.

This makes it one of the most lucrative agriculture business ideas in Nigeria with a low barrier to entry.

Want to start a poultry business?, read this article to get started

Bee Farming/Honey Production

Second, on the list of agricultural business ideas is Bee farming and/or honey production.

The many health benefits of honey make it one of the most sought-after agro-products.

Some of these benefits include;

• It’s a good source of vitamins and essential minerals that provide good nutrition to the body.
• Serves as a good addition to orthodox and traditional medicines.
• Taking honey improves intellectual, mental, and physical health.
• Serves as a good raw material for Industrial Products.

Generally, honey is good for food and medicine. This creates a huge demand in the market.

Therefore, making it a high-profit potential business to engage in.

As long as you’re not allergic to bee stings, this is one of the most profitable agriculture business ideas you can start right now.

It does not require huge capital to start. Also, you don’t need to have a huge space/land area to start this business.

Interestingly, you also do not have too much work as the bees produce the honey themselves.

All you have to do is extract the honey, package it, and sell it.

Requirements

• Bee colony
• Protective clothing/equipment
• Bee Hive
• Honey extractor
• Storage equipment to store processed honey
• Some documents/permissions to farm bees, especially in residential areas
• Target market

Benefits

• It’s an unsaturated market. Hence, you can stand out and make profits
• It’s not capital-intensive and requires less work.

Drawbacks/Challenges

• High-risk involved when handling the bees.

In all, the bee farming and production business are like a gold mine that’s yet to be discovered.

This is because not a lot of people are into the business.

Therefore, this is one of the most profitable agriculture business ideas you can start immediately with little capital.

Snail Farming

Snail farming is also one of the most lucrative agricultural business ideas that can bring in tons of profits for you.

It requires low start-up capital, and the ROI is quite huge.

An analysis of the market shows that you can start a snail farming business with low capital and record a gross margin of about N 612,130.00 and a net profit of N 609,630.00 per snail per cycle.

Even more, the annual demand for snails in Nigeria is about 7.5 million kg annually.

The United States of America imports more than $ 4 million worth of snails annually from all over the world, including Nigeria.

This causes a huge demand both in the local and international markets.

Likewise, the nutritional value of snails mostly influences their demand and the high cost.

Given all these facts, you can never go wrong with the snail farming business as there’ll always be demand for it.

Overall, you can start your snail farming business for commercial purposes.

You do not need much capital or land area to start.

Therefore, there’s nothing stopping you from taking advantage of one of the most profitable agriculture business ideas in Nigeria.

Requirements

• Constructed snail house
• Mature snail: the Achatina is best suited for snail farming in Nigeria
• Snail feed (Vegetables)
• Target customers/market

Benefits

• Huge profits
• Low capital investment

Drawbacks/Challenges

• Not everyone can afford to buy snails; this sometimes affects sales.
• Climatic factors also affect the survival and reproductive activities of snails.

Besides these minor drawbacks, the snail farming business is very lucrative, and you’ll make many profits from it.

All you need is to learn some technical skills required to farm the snails.

Palm Oil Processing and Production

In almost every home in Nigeria, palm oil is consumed. This is why we have palm oil on the list of agricultural business ideas that anyone that wants to invest can venture into.

Palm oil production involves the processing of palm fruits to produce palm oil.

As a business, you can process and package palm oil and sell it to people in large quantities.

Also, Palm oil is not only an essential product in Nigeria but in various parts of the world.

Palm oil has so many health benefits such as boosting the immune system and energy levels, improving eye-sight, preventing premature aging, and reducing the risk of cancer and heart-related diseases, among other things.

These and many other factors influence the relevance and consumption rate of palm oil across the world.

Research shows that the global palm oil market demand was estimated at 74.6 million tons in 2019.

Even more, it is projected to register a volume-based CAGR of 2.3% from 2020 to 2027

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/palm-oil-market.

Considering all these, palm oil processing and production is also one of the most profitable agriculture business ideas in Nigeria.

Palm oil production involves the processing of palm fruits to produce palm oil.

As a business, you can process and package palm oil and sell it to people in large quantities.

Requirements

• Palm fruit supply (personal palm fruit plantation or supply from palm fruit farmers)
• Palm oil processing plantation/location with a good water supply and near palm fruit plantation
• Equipment and machinery, e.g., boiler, palm fruit extractor, pounding machine, etc.
• Staff or daily laborers
• Generator/alternative power supply
• Capital
• The target market for the oil produce

Benefits

• Huge market demand for the product
• Very profitable/huge returns on investment

Drawbacks/Challenges

• Highly capital-intensive

Starting a palm-oil production is very profitable, although challenging in terms of capital.

Nevertheless, it’s a lucrative agricultural business idea in Nigeria that’s worth the investment.

Catfish Farming

Catfish farming is one of the most profitable agricultural business Ideas in Nigeria.

The catfish farming business is all about growing catfish for commercial purposes.

It is also a profitable business that can bring in huge ROI for you.

The profitability of this agriculture business idea is influenced by a lot of factors but mostly, by health and dietary reasons.

As more people choose healthy lifestyles and eating habits, the need for healthy substitutes for red meat increases.

Catfish is one of those healthy substitutes for red meat and contains essential vitamins and fish protein.

Even more, it’s no news that there’s a huge protein deficiency in the Nigerian diet.

This is because Nigeria’s major foods grown and consumed are mostly carbohydrates, such as; yams, rice, cassava, etc.

This creates the need to consume more foods rich in protein for a balanced diet and healthy living.

Overall, these are some of the factors that influence the high demand for and consumption of catfish.

Consequently, making it a profitable agriculture business idea you can start in Nigeria.

To start, you can easily learn the basics of grooming catfish, managing your catfish pond, selling them, and making huge profits.

Requirements

• Catfish pond: It should be wide and deep enough to accommodate a considerable amount of catfish
• Good land/Location with adequate water supply
• Protective nets
• Fish Feeds
• Catfishes
• Target Market

Benefits

• Huge market size for catfish
• It is not so capital-intensive
• Huge profitability

Drawbacks/Challenges

• A high risk of exposure to disease can cause you to lose many catfishes and eventually lose money.

While there are some challenges in the catfish farming business, it has their benefits.

Overall, it’s one of the most profitable agriculture business ideas you can venture into almost immediately.

Want an extensive guide on starting a catfish business? Read this article.

Blogging in the Agro-niche

Agriculture is not all about farming and getting your hands dirty.

Here’s also one of the best profitable agricultural business ideas you can start for tech-inclined people.

Even more, with an Agro-based blog, you can share insightful topics with people worldwide about various aspects of the agricultural industry.

This is definitely one of the profitable agriculture business ideas that can give you multiple streams of income.

First, you can earn money from massive blog traffic and visitors to your site through ads.

Also, you can earn by selling agricultural produce.

With your blog, you can gain a wider customer reach because people from different parts of the world can interact with your blog and get to know the products you sell.

Thereby giving you a huge customer base and profits in business.

Additionally, it’s so easy to start.

All you need to do is to pick a profitable topic or niche you’re interested in and blog about it.

For instance, you can blog about farming, specific types of life stock rearing, food processing and packaging, etc.

You’ll also need to select a domain name and pay for web hosting.

Overall, most people like to go into the practical aspect of agriculture.

However, not many people realize that there’s a lot of potential in agro-based blogging.

Requirements

• A clearly defined/specific agro-niche
• Domain name
• Web-hosting preferably WordPress
• Relevant blogging and research software/applications
• Target audience

Benefits

• Very easy to start/low start-up cost
• Freedom to work remotely/or anywhere in the world

Drawbacks/Challenges

• Longer time to start seeing profits
• Requires specific skills

However, these skills are easily learnable.

In all, this is more of a long-term investment that will keep bringing in profit after a long time of establishing it.

Agro-Produce Exportation

This is another option for people who don’t like to get their hands dirty with planting, harvesting, and all.

Agro-produce exportation is all about exporting agro-produce mostly to foreign countries.

Nigeria is one of the largest exporters of various agro-products such as cashew nuts, sesame seeds, cocoa, bitter cola, palm oil, ginger, frozen shrimps, prawns, etc.

Moreover, some of these agro-products are in high demand in some European and Asian continents.

Hence, all you need to do is research and discover some of the high-in-demand agro-produce and export them to countries in need of them.

Requirements

• Farmers to supply you with the agro-products
• Some exportation documents/Licenses
• Legal business name
• Your customers

Benefits

• Huge profit potential

Drawbacks

• A lot of technicalities involved
• Highly capital intensive

Overall, with the emergence of the internet and other technological advancements, you can do business from your remote location to different parts of the world.

With Nigeria being one of the major exporters of Agriculture products, you can definitely tap into this aspect of the industry and make huge profits.

Conclusion on Profitable Agricultural Business Ideas in Nigeria

There you have it!

7 potentially profitable agricultural business ideas in Nigeria for you to pick from are:

i. Poultry farming

ii. Bee farming

iii. Snail Farming

iv. Palm Oil Processing

v. Catfish farming

vi. Blogging in the agro niche

vii. Agro produce exportation

As an aspiring entrepreneur, you’ve made a huge decision to tap into the agricultural industry because you know how profitable it is.

However, bear in mind that every business has its challenges.

Therefore, you’ll need to be patient while running your business to see it grow from a start-up to a successful business.

Overall, to start your business, you’ll need a profitable business idea and capital to start your business.

Besides that, you’ll also need determination and resilience to succeed in business.

So, pick that one agriculture business idea that’s right for you, develop your business plan, and get started right away.

Here’s to your building a successful agricultural business idea.