Commercialising Agriculture in Africa: Social, Economic and Environmental Impacts

Given the changes taking place in the world today, farmers are confronted with a number of challenges such as climate change, variations in input usages, need for quality products, limited resources, and need to conform to legal and compliance issues. Sadly, the agricultural extension approach in Zimbabwe has been more “production oriented” than “business oriented. Thus, Farming as a Business (FaaB) concept aims to help farmers to improve their farming business skills in farming, with the aim of increasing their incomes by viewing farming as business. Therefore this provides some insights into to the Farming as a Business farmer trainings concept and is intended for use by individuals/institutions, private companies, NGOs involved in agricultural development work focused on the sustainable economic development of farming enterprises. A collection of various agro business development resource materials to enhance the understanding, appreciation and interpretation of smallholder agricultural commercialisation and business aspects among agricultural extension staff is crucial in this sense.. This concept has been deliberately designed to address numerous areas of agricultural commercialisation by focusing on how best an extension agent can help a farmer integrate business concepts in their farming activities. It also aims to provide practical advice and information on management aspects to help farmers run successful farming businesses. The primary outcome will be knowledge, understanding and skills to farmers for them to become more market and business oriented from subsistence oriented mentality