Farming my way into the fastlane

[Awakened2022]

After reading @ Prime Periwinkle's reply to@ @ Marcus Aurelius' request for guidance, I decided to start this thread so that I may not be the faker she mentions after two years.

I joined this forum two years ago after reading TMFL. I had had a series of FTEs at my workplace and in my financial life that one of my goals was to become a millionaire and drive my life.

Since joining the forum, I have seen a massive transformation in my life, especially mindset-wise. When I first came here, I was asking if $240 should hold me hostage. I received lots of support and advice, some of which I implemented.

I am happy to announce that come next year around this time, I will no longer be held hostage by such a paltry amount.

HAVE I ROBBED A BANK, OR KILLED A EUROPEAN?

No! I have found an idea the execution of which is guaranteed to free me from the clutches of a job that no longer holds any attraction for me.

Is the idea SEXY?

It is the most unsexy, and that is what makes it a must-win.

Early this year, I changed my business from a small retail shop to a grocery store. My funds were pretty small, but my head was full of ideas garnered from this forum. The store is in the central district shopping center where retailers from all over the district shop. No MBA could have taught me the lessons I have since learned.

The most important one is that NO BUSINESS PLAN SURVIVES CONTACT WITH THE MARKET. I went in guns blazing ready to secure tenders from various schools for the supply of maize flour only to learn that I would need lots of capital to pull off such a feat.

In my introduction as Anon 05554, I mentioned that we as a family own agricultural land and we're beginning to earn more from the farm than from our day jobs. Because of the farm, we rarely buy food items. Hence, I didn't know that there was a big demand for dried cassava chips and high-quality cassava flour.

I launched my new business with half a tonne of beans, a tonne of maize,200kgs of millet, and 400kgs of dried cassava chips (all produced on my farm). Because I had produced them myself, and my mother taught us to produce clean food, the quality was out of this world.

Within two weeks, I had sold everything. It was then I appreciated the meaning of a productocracy. Referrals were coming in to the extent people started leaving their contacts so I could notify them when I brought in fresh supplies!

WHERE AM I GOING WITH THIS?

I have decided to grow cassava. A kilo of cassava flour sells for slightly less than a dollar and a cassava plant can at worst give one kilo. So, to make over $10k a year, I need to plant over 10000 cassava plants. An acre accommodates 4000 plants at a spacing of 1 meter by one meter. This means I need about three acres of land.


I have always grown cassava for home consumption. I know which variety yields more, which one makes a good dish, and which makes quality dry chips.

I have already planted around 2000 cassava plants and hope to hit the 10000 mark in August when the rainy season starts. I will use our land and even rent some of my inlaws'.

The major challenge will be how to dry such big quantities. I am looking into the possibility of constructing a solar dryer.

Uganda is facing a big food crisis with the population growing at a supersonic rate without a corresponding increase in agricultural investments. The price of food items has doubled and I don't expect that of cassava to go down any time soon.

I will be updating this thread whenever there is a new development. I want to look back two years from today and laugh at how small my dreams were.

I am looking at $100k a year as some big money to start with since I only make $240 a month as a teacher of English in a government secondary school.

I hope to leverage the fertile soils in my area, the fact that I already have a grocery store with a steady stream of customers, and the fact that farming comes naturally to me(I would rather spend the day chopping cassava than marking exam scripts).

My value skew will be unparalleled cleanliness and timely delivery since I will be drying it on my farm. (Currently, my neighbors order theirs from the capital).

If you have read this far, thank you. I have a lot to say, but typing on a phone has its limitations.

Looking forward to a year of growth and plenty of advice from those who know better. Good night good people.

 

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[Awakened2022]

Time for an update.

I am back in town and business is slow. However, the demand for clean dry cassava chips is up. I came from the village with 76 kgs and was sold out before midday.

Others have dry cassava chips but they aren't as clean as mine. I get excited when my neighbors who also sell cassava chips buy from me cassava for their personal use.This makes me wish I had planted a lot last year. As things stand, I have to be patient.

The dry season is upon us and all planting activities have to be put on hold till mid August. We shall instead be harvesting coffee, beans, peanuts, and soy.

I was excited to have someone call to book 50kgs of cassava chips for his party in June. As the business lady I have become, I told him to make a deposit in lieu of commitment..Waiting to hear back from him.

I am wondering whether I shouldn't name this thread,"Farming My Way Into the Fastlane."What do you think?

Will give another update when the harvest is all in so that we can evaluate if the margins are worth my efforts.

Btw, we haven't been paid salaries for three months. I don't know what I would be feeding my family of 9 if we hadn't invested in Agriculture.

Till next time.
Aura

 

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[Awakened2022]

Time to Up the Game.

I spent the last two weeks in the village and sowed a few seeds (literary and figuratively).
1. My seven-year-old daughter accompanied me to the garden for the first time and asked me so many questions about cassava. I told her it is used in making bread, chapatis, daddies, and biscuits. She then declared she would own a bakery when she grew up. A seed sowed.

2. Because I was short of cash and needed money to pay the casual workers, I decided to pick some coffee and sell it unprocessed( some trees will always ripen offseason, and we sometimes ignore them and leave the cherries to fall off due to labour constraints.) I went with my eleven-year-old daughter who was very impressed by the fact that we picked $4 worth of coffee from one tree. She wondered how much money we would make if each coffee tree could give us that much. I have since been wondering how we could achieve that feat on our farm and bid penny-pinching farewell.Another seed sowed.

3. I was able to plant 230+ 260 +520 new cassava stems, bringing me closer to my goal of 1k plants.

I sampled the 9-month-old garden and realised that those who say this variety matures in 8 months lied to us. I am going to wait till it makes one year in May and start " harvesting money."

At the store, things are slow, but I do get some sales. The Tanzania suppliers were here yesterday, but the quality of their chips leaves a lot to be desired. People bought it because they had no better option. I hope to be that option soon.
The beauty of this business is that I make the bulk of my sales via phone orders. Therefore, I could choose to only open the store to make deliveries when more people have discovered us.

Though business is slow, there is one commodity people are looking for and no one has enough of it! HAND SHELLED PEANUTS! It is the planting season and people need the indigenous seeds for planting. Unfortunately, the market is flooded with imported ones from Malawi which are machine-shelled and have a low germination rate.

I had planned to stock lots of the indigenous ones when I encountered this phenomenon last year, but the economy had other plans and I have literally "eaten the store down." Whatever little I had has been sold, and it broke my heart to have to turn down an order for 100 kgs yesterday.

I plan to intercrop peanuts with the new and young cassava, stock more of the indigenous ones in June(when harvesting begins), use my village women to hand shell them at a fee, and watch the prices soar.
I have for sometime played with the idea of making peanut butter, and maybe it is time to add another product to my list. What this venture needs is serious capital (in my context $5000) would suffice to buy enough stock during harvest and target the beginning of new school terms as parents rush to meet their kid's nutritional requirements. Let us wait and see how much the cassava will bring in this year.

In the meantime, I am back at school teaching and the weather is still on its best behaviour( no hailstones/storms).

Thanks for reading through.Till next time,

Aura.

 

[Awakened2022]

Accountability time

I have for the past three months been privy to all the INSIDERS magic, thanks to an anonymous donor. Though I have never been to a first world country, and my impressions are informed by the novels I read and some films, I would imagine INSIDERS is first world, and,... you have guessed what the normal forum is.

I therefore encourage whoever is struggling with ideas, and or has hit a plateau in their efforts, to take a leap of faith and traverse INSIDERS for at least three months.

I have drunk in @Walter Hays AMA, ruminated over @MTF's Publishing thread, toothcombed @Allen Crawley's thread on how to sell to the affluent,and... I have learnt lessons no school can teach.

In appreciation, I have given out improved cassava cultivars to three village women and four fellow teachers. I have a group of 10 women lined up for theirs when the rainy season starts in August.

I hope to become an INSIDERS in my own right when I make enough sales to justify the luxury (it is the first gift I will give myself).

Where my project is as of now

I estimate the number of cassava plants to stand at 7000 with 900 making one year this April and the rest ranging from 2 _8 months. I will harvest the former in July when the dry season is at at its peak. I have learnt that prices for cassava chips vary from town to town.So, I will have to do serious market research.

The lady who exports ginger told me there is demand for cassava flour, but that they need it in thousands of tonnes. She passed by my store , was wowed by the quality of the chips, took photos, and is yet to get feedback from her contact.

Coffee prices have hit a record high, but the harvest season for my region begins in May. I hope the prices remain stable so that we don't get late to the party.
Since it has been raining, the beans and peanuts are looking good. I should begin harvesting the beans early May, and the peanuts in June. I already have an order for 100kgs of hand-shelled peanuts. The proceeds from them should boost my store's inventory.

In other news, I am going into my third week of computer lessons, and IAM happy with my progress.
Last night, I wrote a non-fiction story on a WhatsApp group and got about six "encourages" to monetise my writing skills.

Since my last post, I have fallen in love with Auraz Organics ( company name) as suggested by a member on this forum, and is what I am going with.

I will next post when
1. I have made a huge harvest
2. Made a big sale
3.Had my first branded sample, or
4. I need advice only this forum can give.

Till then,
Aura.

P.S.I will hit my target of 10000 plants in August when I put the two acres currently under peanuts to cassava growing.
I appreciate the time you take to peruse my progress thread.

 

[Awakened2022]

I love this thread so much! Super excited for you.

Two thoughts:
1. What if you set your sights on selling to the overseas gluten-free market? Right now on Amazon, a package of Cassava flour is $14.49 for 2 lb (907 g). At your current scale, you might not be able to do this yet, but if your product is known for being the cleanest, I bet big brands would eventually love to order as much as you can produce.

2. Regarding the potential pitch to parliament - think about what's in it for them. Think this through in preparing your pitch. Put yourself in their shoes and consider what factors they would have to take into account to grant your request. For example:

• How far is the distance to the nearest power grid?
• How much would it cost for them to extend the power lines to you?
• How much return would be generated if you were to have access to power? (e.g. the general prosperity of the whole region would be $X without access to power, but your projections show that if you had power and were able to scale your cassava operation faster, then you would have the ability to employ __ people and generate $XXXXX, which would have a ripple effect of improvements in the whole community.)
• Are there any problems that they would like to solve that could be solved more effectively if there was more money to go around in the local area? Some issues, like lack of education, can be alleviated when the general population is more prosperous. Can you help them see the connection between your success and their objectives for improvements in the region? How much could the effectiveness of your operation help them to achieve things they care about?
• You might research what their campaign platform consisted of and see if there are campaign promises they made or "pet" issues they have that you could establish a link to. You don't have to promise them the moon - just argue a believable connection between them helping you and fulfilling their campaign promise.
• In terms of research - if your brother is a friend of this person, part of your research might be to ask your brother for insight into what this parliament member cares about.

A thousand thanks to @Bekit for this detailed response. I have been hesitant to make an update, and you have given me a reason to make yet another update.

To begin with, fate put our Member of Parliament in my path when we met at a function last week. I put my timidity in the corner and introduced myself as my brother's sister(I had initially wanted to pitch to the female one who is known to my other brother, and this is the male one also known to my elder brother). To my surprise, he said he already knew who I was.

Long story short, I told him my family would love it if he toured our farm on one of his visits to the constituency. He told me to tell him more about the farm in a message to remind him of the invitation.

I sent him a What's up message yesterday(I got his number from my brother), detailing the location, projects, and employment opportunities on the farm. I used a you-focused approach: how we employ his constituents, how we would benefit from his seasoned and informed advice to take the farm to another level, how being associated with any development in the area would further cement his support in the electorates blah blah blah. I even used a p.s.

Someone said that the universe always conspires to give us what we want if we focus enough on it. I guess this is happening in my case. As luck would have it, the honorable Member will be visiting a school in our community in two weeks and has thus asked me to send him a reminder towards that day. Fortunately, I will also be in the village hosting about 15 members of our village savings group. Let us hope something comes out of our engagement.

In other news, cassava chips are still selling steadily. Yesterday alone, I sold 95 kgs. I have also come to know a farmer who expects to harvest 20 tonnes of cassava around this time next year. He has promised to consider selling it to me. I am now prematurely worrying about where I will get the money from.

It is still the dry season and no planting can be done till it rains. However, I have resorted to having sharecroppers for millet so that I focus on planting cassava without worrying about millet as well.

This year, we have hit our target of producing one tonne of "clean"coffee(that who's husks have been removed).What we planted last year(around 1800) plants have flowered for the first time, so our harvest should increase this year.
My long-term goal is to brand packaging materials and begin "putting my product out there"probably mid-next year. I plan to quit my part-time teaching job to create more time for my venture.

@Bekit,@BizyDad,@Isaac Odongo and others, I am grateful for your time, likes, feedback, and advice. All I can say is: watch this space.

Till then,
Aura.

 

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[Awakened2022]

And...

IT HAS RAINED.
Till next time,
Aura.

 

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[Awakened2022]

Short, but exciting update.

I was in the village yesterday and using my newly learned copywriting skills, I managed to wring about half an acre of rent-free virgin land from my 82-year-old mother-in-law.

I immediately engaged casual laborers at slightly more than a dollar for four hours of work each to prepare the land for planting.

We are all counting down to 15th August( the Assumption of Mary)for serious rains to begin. (In the absence of sufficient technology, we third-worlders look to religion.)

The quantity and quality of cassava in the market have improved because people can now sundry it with ease. This gives me a reason to believe that if I can get a means of drying cassava chips during the wet season. I will have found a very profitable unfair advantage.

I will return with the rains.
Till then,
Aura.

 

[Awakened2022]

END-OF-YEAR WRAP-UP

2023 has taught me a lot and has seen a lot of metamorphosis take place in my life.
1. I now understand why I have been an unhappy employee. While I have been carrying out my duties diligently, I could never have the same passion for the institution I work for that I see my colleagues exuding. I only have such passion for my projects, however small. I guess I was meant to be self-employed, but didn't know it.
2. I have learned the power of leverage, a word I first encountered in M.J.'s books. I have now learned to leverage our vast family land, my trait of being meticulous, and the cheap labor available in my village.
Another word that has changed the way I do business is value skew. My small store has gained a reputation for having the whitest and cleanest cassava flour, cassava chips, grit-free millet and millet flour, and the best-sorted beans and peanuts. I go on cloud nine whenever some new customer tells me he has been referred to my store by another customer.

3. I now have a business where I can control the quality of the products. In addition, it is not entirely tied to my time like the job. For instance, I am now in the village overseeing the harvesting of beans while my son runs the store. Plus, some people call me to make orders that my son delivers. I guess I could say I have some toes in the fast lane. Mind you, my capital is very small, but I have learned that with consistency and dedication, I can make something of this venture.

4. I have managed to resign from my part-time teaching job where I was earning $83 per month. I trust this will give me time to dedicate to cassava growing and processing. Without a venture that promises exponential growth in my income, I would still be stuck in teaching and complaining mode.

WHERE MY CASSAVA IS AT NOW

The first garden of 900 plants is eight months old. If I were desperate for money, I would start harvesting it. I will however leave it to make one year as the taste and texture of the flour improves with maturity.

The cassava I planted in August and September is undergoing its second weeding, and the plants look healthy.

At the store, the price has remained the same, but few people have clean cassava chips as we are experiencing El Nino. I am worried about running out of stock soon as demand skyrockets during the festive season.

This year, I have spent around $2000 on the purchase of cassava chips. I hope to save that and more next year as I will be selling mine.

GOALS FOR 2024.

1. To plant around 2500 cassava cultivars in the area currently under millet come February.
2. To acquire a solar drier.
3. To brand packing materials for cassava flour.
4. To do more wholesaling than retailing.
5. To promote the business to catering groups so that their clients can be referred to our store.
6. To buy at least two cows so that I can stop buying milk when we go to the village during holidays.

IN OTHER NEWS

1. I have spent two weeks in the village, and the kids have been super helpful in doing farm work. I guess we have got a taste of financial freedom without the finances. We eat only organic bananas, cassava, beans, eggs, wild strawberries, mangoes, sugar canes, etc and we buy milk straight from our neighbor's farm.
The kids are beseeching their dad to let them spend the holidays in the village!

I have partnered with my mother-in-law to put an acre of her land under cassava. I have already contracted casual workers to prepare the field and I will do the planting after Christmas break.

On a lighter note, I now calculate expenses in terms of cassava. Two liters of milk that I buy daily are equivalent to one kilo of cassava flour, a casual worker costs me 5000 shillings a day, which is two kilos of cassava flour, and internet data is ten kilos of cassava flour a month.

I am on holiday till 5th February next year. I am using this time to write a book that I wish my mother had written for me. My daughter has read some chapters and is constantly asking for more. I hope I will finish it and add author to my status. Any advice from authors especially of memoirs is highly welcome.

If any of you need a beta reader or proofreader, feel free to get in touch.

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.
Till next time,

Aura.

 

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[Awakened2022]

I guess I owe you an update. First and foremost, I have been maddeningly busy. This is the harvesting season and we are at school! Luckily for me, I have a trustworthy maid who doubles as my assistant at the grocery store when I go to the farm.

Most of the coffee has been harvested and we should sell off the first batch, like one tonne this weekend. Each kilogram goes for 4000shs(slightly more than a dollar).
As for the beans, I have about half a tonne and the prices go up daily. I plan to hold on to mine and sell them in August when people are desperate for clean planting seeds.

Quality cassava chips are selling like hotcakes. In the last two weeks alone, I have sold nearly half a tonne, and my customers are people with weddings. Cassava flour is mixed with millet flour in equal quantities and mingled to make millet bread which is a must have at every function in my region).The beauty of these sales is that most are referrals.

On another positive note, we had some land under trees and I have persuaded hubby to sell off the trees so I can get more land for cassava growing come August when the rains begin. He has injected the proceeds from the sale of the trees into my store, so it is a win win for me.

Other than these, I am in the village plotting , planning and acting on my goal of farming my way into the fast lane.

Will be back with the rains.
Till then,

Aura.

 

[Awakened2022]

Thank you for the update. Are the chips a new product or is your recent success a result of a change in getting the word out?

Either way, I'm glad to hear you are getting word of mouth. That means you have some things good, something worth telling people about.

Thank you for the update. Are the chips a new product or is your recent success a result of a change in getting the word out?

Either way, I'm glad to hear you are getting word of mouth. That means you have some things good, something worth telling people about.

Thanks for asking. The chips are not a new product. Others have them, but they are dirty and full of molds and probably aflatoxin.

When I began this business, I had my personally dried chips, and people got to know me as the "clean chips lady".Now, whoever is looking for clean chips simply gets directed to my store.

The chips have always been sold cheaply, but food prices have simply skyrocketed in the past two years, and I am counting on them to stay that way for the next two or so.

I didn't know cassava chips and flour were in high demand because I have always grown my cassava and processed flour for home consumption. So, I had zero interaction with the market.

Thanks to this forum, I now know about value skew and mine is very clean cassava chips that say"Shut up and take my money".

When I doubt someone's ability to dry them satisfactorily, I buy the cassava raw and dry them myself at a cost.

I am encouraging my neighbors to plant cassava in August so that they become my out growers.

All in all, I am excited about life and feel I am on to a CENTS-based business.
Thanks for the prompt.

 

[Awakened2022]

A new month and a new update.

Business is frighteningly slow as our sales peak only when there is food scarcity in the villages. As things stand, bananas are plentiful this time of the year. Therefore, few people are buying rice, millet, and maize flour.

Being relatively a novice in this business, the legends have encouraged me not to lose heart since the business picks up from September up to March.

On the cassava chips and flour side, there are more suppliers now that it is the dry season, but their supplies fall short of mine in quality. This gives me the confidence that I am onto a serious value skew.

The cassava I planted in April is now 2 and a half months old. I sourced the seed from our National Agricultural Research Organisation in the hope of getting increased yields. If it matures in 10 months, as I was told, I have seven more months of waiting.

In the meantime, my goals for this month are as follows:
1. Pay casual workers to prepare fields for planting when the rains come in August.
2. Convince my Member of Parliament to visit our farm. I hope to persuade her to lobby for a hydropower connection for my village to the national grid so that by the time my cassava matures, I can set up a milling factory.
3. Record all cassava-related sales, and capture the phone numbers of my customers to get feedback on how satisfactory my product was to them.

Meanwhile, it is 1:00 pm here and the only thing I have sold is cassava flour_55kgs, and mercifully, to repeat customers.

I can't wait for the rains to come so that I hit my target of a 10k cassava plants garden.

Btw, regarding the Member of Parliament, I have just got her number from my brother who is her friend. He has requested me not to mention him. Any tips on how to pitch her an invitation? I want her to visit my farm, see how much it is contributing to the development of her constituency, and hopefully persuade her to lobby for a connection to the national power grid.

Your tips are most welcome.
I will do my best to provide updates weekly.

I am going to try and attach pictures of my baby(cassava garden). If I fail, I am still a work in progress. Looks like I have succeeded.

Till then,

Aura.

 

[Awakened2022]

Happy Birthday to me. Three more years of the slow lane till I hit the required age of 45 for early retirement. To celebrate the big day, I was up at 6:30 with a forked hoe, with a casual labourer preparing a piece of land for me to plant cassava tomorrow( I guess I will plant around 300.)I last did some digging during Covid 19 Lockdown and my palms are screaming in protest.

My son has just called to say he has run out of dry cassava chips today. Thankfully, I have been in the village trying to chip and dry some. The weather however has had other ideas. It is raining cats and dogs,(when it should be shining like the devil is after it) and my chips may not turn out as white as I would wish.

I have been thinking deeply about my end game, and I have realised that I will soon run out of land for planting cassava. The market is there, true, and it will only get better given that right now, famine is ravaging most villages in our region, and he who can provide food will be king.

My best bet is to sell off my produce when it gets ready starting this May and concentrate on buying from others and providing a drying and processing centre.

Meanwhile, I am happy with where my gardens are at and will be planting more in February. I now have some customers who buy cassava flour from me regularly, albeit in small quantities. I expect more to come since I will be dealing in my own produce and can even give competitive prices.

Internet searches have revealed that there are companies that export cassava chips, flour, and fresh tubers. This has been a form of validation for our venture.When the time is ripe, I will encourage hubby to contact some so that we get our feet wet in the export business by learning from them.

I recently had people send me cassava chips claiming they were white and clean only to realize few people understand what clean cassava looks like! I have learnt my lesson. If I can't physically inspect it, I won't buy it!

The purpose of this update is mainly to express my gratitude to this forum for helping me birth an idea that makes me look to the future with optimism and purpose instead of grim resignation.

Will update in February when I do the bulk of the planting( luckily, I will get the cultivars from the first garden that I planted in May).

Till next time,

Aura.
P.S. Our beloved government is yet to pay us December and January salaries.Where would yours truly be without food security?

 

[Devilery]

Honestly, this is so refreshing to follow, everyone wants to build "cool" businesses - marketing agencies, e-commerce, real estate, etc., and you're filling one of the most basic human needs - the need for food. Not that there's anything wrong with the trendy businesses.

I love it and the way you write is unique (in a good way). Looking forward to reading about your future success, potentially, exporting to other countries, or expanding with other products.

 

[Bekit]

I love this thread so much! Super excited for you.

Two thoughts:
1. What if you set your sights on selling to the overseas gluten free market? Right now on Amazon, a package of Cassava flour is $14.49 for 2 lb (907 g). At your current scale, you might not be able to do this yet, but if your product is known for being the cleanest, I bet big brands would eventually love to order as much as you can produce.

2. Regarding the potential pitch to parliament - think about what's in it for them. Really think this through in preparing your pitch. Put yourself in their shoes and consider what factors they would have to take into account in order to grant your request. For example:

• How far is the distance to the nearest power grid?
• How much would it cost for them to extend the power lines to you?
• How much return would be generated if you were to have access to power? (e.g. the general prosperity of the whole region would be $X without access to power, but your projections show that if you had power and were able to scale your cassava operation faster, then you would have the ability to employ __ people and generate $XXXXX, which would have a ripple effect of improvements in the whole community.)
• Are there any problems that they would like to solve that could be solved more effectively if there was more money to go around in local area? Some issues, like lack of education, can be alleviated when the general population is more prosperous. Can you help them see the connection between your success and their objectives for improvements in the region? How much could the effectiveness of your operation help them to achieve things they care about?
• You might research what their campaign platform consisted of and see if there are campaign promises they made or "pet" issues they have that you could establish a link to. You don't have to promise them the moon - just argue a believable connection between them helping you and fulfilling their campaign promise.
• In terms of research - if your brother is a friend of this person, part of your research might be to ask your brother for insight into what this parliament member cares about.

 

[Awakened2022]

The miraculous thing about miracles is that they still happen!

Mine has just happened in the form of the sweet sound of raindrops gently pouring down and quenching the thirst of the land that has for long been scorched by the sun.

And just after I planted more than 250 cassava cultivars.

May good things continue happening to me and you.

 

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[Awakened2022]

firstly, good luck to you and your close ones.

Thank you. At fifteen, you have the world going for you. Try as many legal things as possible, and don't forget to have fun.

I have a seventeen-year-old son who doesn't own a phone, and won't for the next two years because they are prohibited in most Ugandan secondary schools. Even if they were, I doubt we have reached the level of affluence where we lavish smartphones on young boys.

It is good you appreciate the rich heritage you have and the opportunities before you. Keep counting your blessings.

I appreciate the time you took to read through my progress.

May good things keep happening to you, too.

Till next time,
Aura.

 

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[Andy Black]

END-OF-YEAR WRAP-UP

2023 has taught me a lot and has seen a lot of metamorphosis take place in my life.
1. I now understand why I have been an unhappy employee. While I have been carrying out my duties diligently, I could never have the same passion for the institution I work for that I see my colleagues exuding. I only have such passion for my projects, however small. I guess I was meant to be self-employed, but didn't know it.
2. I have learned the power of leverage, a word I first encountered in M.J.'s books. I have now learned to leverage our vast family land, my trait of being meticulous, and the cheap labor available in my village.
Another word that has changed the way I do business is value skew. My small store has gained a reputation for having the whitest and cleanest cassava flour, cassava chips, grit-free millet and millet flour, and the best-sorted beans and peanuts. I go on cloud nine whenever some new customer tells me he has been referred to my store by another customer.

3. I now have a business where I can control the quality of the products. In addition, it is not entirely tied to my time like the job. For instance, I am now in the village overseeing the harvesting of beans while my son runs the store. Plus, some people call me to make orders that my son delivers. I guess I could say I have some toes in the fast lane. Mind you, my capital is very small, but I have learned that with consistency and dedication, I can make something of this venture.

4. I have managed to resign from my part-time teaching job where I was earning $83 per month. I trust this will give me time to dedicate to cassava growing and processing. Without a venture that promises exponential growth in my income, I would still be stuck in teaching and complaining mode.

WHERE MY CASSAVA IS AT NOW

The first garden of 900 plants is eight months old. If I were desperate for money, I would start harvesting it. I will however leave it to make one year as the taste and texture of the flour improves with maturity.

The cassava I planted in August and September is undergoing its second weeding, and the plants look healthy.

At the store, the price has remained the same, but few people have clean cassava chips as we are experiencing El Nino. I am worried about running out of stock soon as demand skyrockets during the festive season.

This year, I have spent around $2000 on the purchase of cassava chips. I hope to save that and more next year as I will be selling mine.

GOALS FOR 2024.

1. To plant around 2500 cassava cultivars in the area currently under millet come February.
2. To acquire a solar drier.
3. To brand packing materials for cassava flour.
4. To do more wholesaling than retailing.
5. To promote the business to catering groups so that their clients can be referred to our store.
6. To buy at least two cows so that I can stop buying milk when we go to the village during holidays.

IN OTHER NEWS

1. I have spent two weeks in the village, and the kids have been super helpful in doing farm work. I guess we have got a taste of financial freedom without the finances. We eat only organic bananas, cassava, beans, eggs, wild strawberries, mangoes, sugar canes, etc and we buy milk straight from our neighbor's farm.
The kids are beseeching their dad to let them spend the holidays in the village!

I have partnered with my mother-in-law to put an acre of her land under cassava. I have already contracted casual workers to prepare the field and I will do the planting after Christmas break.

On a lighter note, I now calculate expenses in terms of cassava. Two liters of milk that I buy daily are equivalent to one kilo of cassava flour, a casual worker costs me 5000 shillings a day, which is two kilos of cassava flour, and internet data is ten kilos of cassava flour a month.

I am on holiday till 5th February next year. I am using this time to write a book that I wish my mother had written for me. My daughter has read some chapters and is constantly asking for more. I hope I will finish it and add author to my status. Any advice from authors especially of memoirs is highly welcome.

If any of you need a beta reader or proofreader, feel free to get in touch.

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.
Till next time,

Aura.

@MJ DeMarco... Your books are literally helping people feed themselves and others. Amazing progress Aura and I love your writing and spirit. Marked GOLD.

 

[Awakened2022]

Happy Birthday, Aura, congratulations on the GOLD and keep saving the world!

Thanks @Spenny. I hope God continues using me to inspire the rural women to have food security.

 

[Awakened2022]

By their fruits will they be known


I have managed to plant another 350 cassava plants. In addition, the acreage under beans and peanuts has increased. With good weather, my inventory should comprise mostly of products from my farm, effective June.

My sharecroppers have given me enough millet to last us the whole year. I guess that is how passive income tastes since all I did was provide land for the crop.

I have been visiting B2B sites to get a feel of the quantities importers require, and boy! the quantities are staggering! It makes me feel like I have not started planting cassava where I thought I was breaking records( the difference between thinking locally versus thinking globally). This has inspired me to rent more land(in the process of getting 1/4 acre from my mother-in-law) and plant more cassava.

At the store, I am struggling to get clean chips as whatever I procure finds immediate market provided it is clean and white, which is rarely the case. The rains have come and we have to wait for May (when the dry season starts) to dry the chips in tons.

Through acting, assessing, and adjusting, I have added another product to my list of those to focus on when the time comes to go national and global. Still, because of my mother's training, we would winnow millet till it was fully chaff-free, and grit-free. That woman makes the best millet bread in the world.)The millet that is supplied to us is factory winnowed( for lack of a better word). My neighbours simply get it milled as is. For me, I get some women to winnow it further and remove whatever chaff and grit might have remained. In effect, my flour is becoming a productocracy, making me think since it is used together with cassava flour most of the time, I should make it another product under my name.

For all those who prayed for my son, thank you. He aced his exams and qualifies to join any of the best schools in the country for Advanced Level education. Fortunately, with some sacrifice here and there, we shall be able to send him to the best school in the country. This is only possible because we have hope of getting money from the cassava project. One could say this forum is changing the narrative of my son's future.

On a light note, we have birds that can easily destroy a whole garden of beans when they are just germinating. This happened to one of my gardens last season. The local women have now advised me to take clothes belonging to my twins and ask the birds what they expect me to feed the twins if they destroy my beans, then leave the clothes in the garden. I will report next week on the success of my communication with the birds when I have inspected the gardens.#respect local women.

P.S.: I am grateful to @Mikkel who has made it his mission to make an exporter out of me. Your efforts are not in vain as my mind has now become accustomed to the fact that it can be done. To all those who follow my progress and give me advice, my gratitude knows no bounds.

Till next time,
Aura.

 

[Stargazer]

It's a real pleasure reading your thread.

I always think of the Poem 'The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke due to the line 'That there's some corner of a foreign field...' although the poem is not even remotely correlated to what you are doing.

I admire the way that both you and @Isaac Odongo are building up yourselves, your communities and your countries.

Dan

 

[Awakened2022]

Back with the rains

If excitement were a person, that would be me! Never in a million years would the Aura of yesteryears have dreamt of inviting and later on hosting a member of parliament in her humble home.

Happy to report that the Honourable Member of Parliament spent over an hour touring our farm and was impressed by our coffee project. He reached out to the district Chief Administrative Officer and told him that our farm, given the magnitude of its impact on the community, should be given priority for solar irrigation. The C AO promised to have the district production committee visit our farm to assess the feasibility of turning it into a model and demonstration farm. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

About electricity, the Honourable regretted that his hands were tied since rural electrification is done using loans, yet the world bank has recently suspended all grants to the Ugandan Government following the signing of the anti-homosexuality bill into law. He said he would lobby for electricity extension to our village if such a ban was lifted.

Thank you to @Bekit for your copywriting tips. I was able to project an abundance mindset and the Honourable was impressed to meet the members of our village savings group that he contributed some money to our savings scheme.


All in all, I think we are onto something, and this forum and @MJ DeMarco's books take most of the credit.

About my cassava project, the rains have begun(as usual with the celebration of the Assumption of Mother Mary). Since schools close for the second term holidays next week, I will be heading to the village to try and meet my goal of planting 10000 cassava plants or even more.

In other news, my son who will be doing his End of Senior Four exams said he has trouble with English Composition Writing. As a teacher of English, I am going to put together some materials that can help him master the writing skill. If they prove resourceful, I will expand on them and turn them into a work book that my students can purchase. Perhaps I will give @Isaac Odongo some competition and practical tips on how to sell a book.

I promised @Stargazer one of my poems with this update. Let me see if I can attach it. I wrote it last year

Any advice, comments suggestions are welcome.
Till then,

Aura.

 

[Awakened2022]

End of August Update

The rains have betrayed us, and I imagine this is a sign of tough times to come. It has only drizzled twice since August 15th. Previously, most of the planting used to be done in August and early September. This is the major planting season for bananas, coffee, beans, maize, peas and coffee. I shudder to think of what food prices will be next year given that most have doubled this year.

Nonetheless, our people have a saying that," A farmer looks at the soil, not the sky." Encouraged that the cassava I planted in June has germinated despite there being no rain at all, I have convinced my brother-in-law to allow me to use his land ( about half an acre) for a year, and he has agreed. In effect, together with three of my workers, we planted 680 cultivars on Monday, and we have planted 530 today (at a spacing of 1 meter by 1 meter). I hope to plant 300 more tomorrow.

I have also engaged the services of 5 women to plant beans for me tomorrow. I can only supervise them since I am unable to do serious digging because I have had 5 cesarean deliveries and such work causes me some bit of ache in the lower abdomen.

I have two pieces of land that have been plowed and are set for cassava planting as soon as it rains. I hope to plant at least 5,000 cultivars this season and 3000 in February to hit my 10,000 goal.

On the market front, I guess I have cemented my stance as the lady with good cassava chips. The one tonne I bought is almost sold out, the good news being that we have started selling in bulk eg 100kg sacks.

The store is doing fairly well save for the fact that we are not reinvesting the profits because the economy is tottering and other than salaries, which are a pittance, our schools haven't paid our allowances since May. Mind you, I have two rents to pay, 5 workers, and 7 kids to educate. No wonder, for me the the fast lane is something I must achieve for the sake of changing my family's narrative of scarcity.

Following the Member of Parliament's shout-out to the Local Leaders, we had a visit from the District Production Department and they deemed us eligible for solar irrigation. It is done on a cost-sharing basis and we shall soon need to raise about $1700.

The cassava I planted in April(900) is now four months old and has some tubers already. Let me attach a picture.

I guess that is it for now.

Till it rains,

Aura.

 

[Awakened2022]

How much does a solar dryer cost?

Thanks for reading through my progress thread. It means a lot. To answer your questions,
A friend has a solar drier for ginger with a capacity of two tons, and she told me it cost her around five million Ugandan shillings($1351). However, this includes all the materials used.

I estimate that it would cost me around $810 since I have timber and the poles needed.
Yes, local materials can be used. I have been doing research and it seems the big costs go into paying for expertise and the polythene.
Export, not only of cassava flour but of many other organic agricultural products is in my 5-year planasay. I had to start somewhere and cassava is what is in the pipeline. When the quantities make sense, I guess I will have to give it my all.
Thanks for that link. I will follow it up.

As of now, the best I can do is plant more cassava and encourage some women to do the same. I hope to get money in July(the peak of the coffee season) to construct the drier since the heavy rains start in August. In the meantime, I will rely on the sun as I have been doing.

I have enrolled for an innovator entrepreneurship course(free) and they promise to link us up with the necessary offices. I hope this will ease my introduction into company registration, branding, and getting a license.

I hope I have satisfied your curiosity to a point.

 

[Awakened2022]

Big things move on small hinges

I have today got my first customer from the capital city, and the beauty of this customer is that she runs a retail shop. She was referred to me after being impressed by the quality of the millet she enjoyed at a customer's home.

Hope her customers get equally impressed by the quality of my flour so that she becomes a repeat customer.

Till the next big thing,

Aura.

 

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[Awakened2022]

Hey

Well done

I am excited.

How do you make your cassava flour?

I remember once eating cassava flour from fresh, unfermented cassava. What a delicacy it was. But nobody seems to be bothered about it.

It is the best flour anyone can eat. But it can’t be found with ease.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I make my flour by following the following steps:

1st I wash the cassava, then I cut it into medium-sized chips which I peel. Thereafter, I rinse it and spread it on a clean tarpaulin to dry.

That is where the real battle begins. If it does not shine that first day, the color will change, the smell will be horrible and molds will grow. That is why I am planning to invest in a solar drier. A flush one would be better, but it is mighty expensive and we do not have hydroelectricity in my village.

When it is dry after like five days, I get it milled and the selling begins.

I do not know about fermented cassava flour. How is it made?
Btw, a kilogram of cassava flour retails at 3000shs and wholesale at 2500shs.

With the price of maize flour skyrocketing daily, investing in cassava growing might be the best decision of my life. One year is not too long a time to asses and adjust.

Good day.

Aura.

 

[Awakened2022]

Yesterday, I got confirmation that I am on the right track with my cassava chips idea.

A supplier brought around 5 tons of not-so-clean dry cassava chips and people almost exchanged blows in a bid to get their hands on a sack.

You may not believe this,(and I also found it hard to believe)but this cassava had been imported from Tanzania, our neighbor to the south. This means cassava production in Uganda could be at an all-time low, or is it that demand has exceeded supply? Either way, I believe I will emerge victorious and will be singing a happy song sometime next year.

The most surprising and heartwarming news is that even with others selling cassava chips as cheaply as 2500shs a kilo, those who treasure quality still found their way to my store, and mine is 3000shs a kilo.

In other news, this weekend I was in the village and planted around 200 cassava plants. I took a risk because the dry season has set in already. Let us wait and see if the skies will smile on me and send some rain. If not, the cassava will still sprout when the rainy season begins in August.

I have not yet pitched the Member of Parliament since I realized I needed a compelling project for her to tour (I only have about 2500 plants so far).

Will update again when I have news worth sharing.
Till then,
Aura.

 

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[Bekit]

Hey Aura, that's great! What an awesome update!

I have also come to know a farmer who expects to harvest 20 tonnes of cassava around this time next year. He has promised to consider selling it to me. I am now prematurely worrying about where I will get the money from.

I would encourage you to read Jay Abraham's "Mind Shift Challenge" to stimulate your thoughts around creative ways to make agreements when you don't have the money but it might come in the future. There are a ton of interesting stories in this PDF, and all of them will help you to think outside the box to figure out what might be possible.

 

[Bekit]

the honorable Member will be visiting a school in our community in two weeks and has thus asked me to send him a reminder towards that day.

Copywriting thoughts on sending this reminder to help ensure that he comes. I sense a hesitancy and non-commitment on his part based on your description.

In your reminder, see if you can make the farm tour feel fun and easy to him, where he can picture himself going and having a good time. I'm sure these kinds of invitations often mean uncomfortable requests and/or demands from the needy. There is always more need than someone like that can fulfill! So you want him to feel at ease and help him to see that this will not be an uncomfortable visit. If you can indicate that you are coming from a mindset of abundance, strength, and gratitude, I think that will sell him on coming, and then once he is onsite, you can structure your pitch to get him further interested and bought in.

Angles you could consider taking for your reminder:
- Inspiration: You will be inspired at what's possible when you see what's happening on this farm.
- Curiosity: How does the Awakened2022 farm achieve the cleanest finished product for sale? You will get to see a demo.
- Pragmatism: No one wants to get grit in their teeth when they eat. Come and see how we solve that problem better.
- Culture: The story of how your mom taught you to produce cleaner food would be very interesting

You may have a different angle that is way better - this is just to get your ideas flowing. The overall point is, try to give him a really clear picture in his head of an enjoyable and easy thing to add to his agenda.

 

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[Awakened2022]

Copywriting thoughts on sending this reminder to help ensure that he comes. I sense a hesitancy and non-commitment on his part based on your description.

In your reminder, see if you can make the farm tour feel fun and easy to him, where he can picture himself going and having a good time. I'm sure these kinds of invitations often mean uncomfortable requests and/or demands from the needy. There is always more need than someone like that can fulfill! So you want him to feel at ease and help him to see that this will not be an uncomfortable visit. If you can indicate that you are coming from a mindset of abundance, strength, and gratitude, I think that will sell him on coming, and then once he is onsite, you can structure your pitch to get him further interested and bought in.

Angles you could consider taking for your reminder:
- Inspiration: You will be inspired at what's possible when you see what's happening on this farm.
- Curiosity: How does the Awakened2022 farm achieve the cleanest finished product for sale? You will get to see a demo.
- Pragmatism: No one wants to get grit in their teeth when they eat. Come and see how we solve that problem better.
- Culture: The story of how your mom taught you to produce cleaner food would be very interesting

You may have a different angle that is way better - this is just to get your ideas flowing. The overall point is, try to give him a really clear picture in his head of an enjoyable and easy thing to add to his agenda.

You are spot on especially on projecting the abundance mindset. Can't wait to incorporate your suggestions. Will ask my brother what the honorable's idea of fun on a farm would be.

In the meantime, I am going to research the cost of branding packaging materials so that I can gift him some of our cassava flour in a decent packet.

Let us keep our fingers crossed.

 

[JordanK]

@Awakened2022 Thanks for the updates and cool posts. I am learning so much about a part of the world that doesn't get much attention here in Ireland. Keep up the good work with the business!