Getting your money’s worth

In June 2001, Qazi Naeem Ullah was a regular visitor to the courts. He had recently cleared his bar exams and was now experimenting with his newly attained title. Hardly any income was being earned, as it is the case with most young lawyers. The other option of returning to his father’s lands and watch them being cultivated the way they have been cultivated for generations, was too trivial a career choice for Qazi’s taste.
Social, energetic, ambitious and with an acumen for detail, Qazi had most of the basic ingredients required to become an entrepreneur. While accompanying a friend to the Mian Channu district, he was particularly fascinated by the concept of tunnel farming and soon took Mian Shaukat, a pioneer in this field and currently the owner Pakistan’s largest tunnel farms, as his “ustad”.
Qazi was not paid any heed to by his father and elder brothers who were not only upset at him for buying cucumber seeds at ten times the price of normal seeds and also mocked at him for installing plastic tunnels, “chatrees,” as they called them, over the land. In his small town, the produce was new to the market and could not fetch him a good price so he was forced to send most of it to Lahore. That year his returns were not maximized, yet the profits and a high yield was very encouraging and since then there has been no looking back for him.
Qazi is today not only the largest tunnel farmer in his district with tunnels stretching over 100 acres but is also a regional distributor of an international seeds company.
Tunnel farming-what is it all about?
The science of growing certain vegetables, traditionally grown in warm weather, during the winter season is known as tunnel farming in Pakistan. Gifted with sunlight all year round, tunnel farmers use polythene, covered over structures of bamboo, iron or pipes, to trap the sun’s heat and provide plants an optimal temperature to grow. Off season vegetables not only fetch an average price three times greater than that of traditionally grown vegetables but the yields are also much greater.
High producing seeds and vertical growth of certain crops like cucumbers and tomatoes allow farmers to have a yield equivalent to ten acres from just one acre of land. Although having experience of growing traditional vegetables is valuable but does not guarantee success in tunnel farming. Farming off season vegetables is a completely different ball game altogether. Most of the inputs and their use completely differ from traditional techniques. High quality, genetically engineered seeds, varied pesticides and fungicides, high growth regulators and soil nutrients/conditioners are used in scientifically proven ways to attain maximum gains.
Tunnel farming has gained significant popularity all over Pakistan but mostly in Punjab as it best suits the prevailing natural conditions. As functional knowledge of the field and availability of better inputs in the market increased, tunnel farming in Punjab has flourished from a few hundred acres to more than 35000 acres in the last five years.
How to prepare for the bang?
After several interviews, reviewing feasibilities provided by the agriculture department, the Government of Punjab, a consulting firm and actual costs and revenue reports from a farm, a basic project analysis has been conducted. It is important that you do your home work at least six months before commencing the project. Meet as many successful tunnel farmers as possible, preferably in areas near your selected land location. Hire a consultant, not for feasibility purposes but for consultation regarding land preparation and optimum use of pesticide and fertilisers.
Remember the only form of consulting amongst traditional small scale farmers is the word of advice from the pesticide seller in the ‘mandi’, his ‘arti’ friends and fellow farmers. Do not take any advice from either of them. Have your soil and water source tested from the department of agriculture and discuss necessary treatment with your consultant. Beware of fraudulent consultant doctors who do not have sufficient experience. An advisable solution would be to find a consultant providing services to a farm that is successfully run.
It is always suggested that a startup tunnel farm should not be of less than five acres high walk or ten acres medium walk in tunnels. For a project less than that, it would not be feasible to hire effective human resource and consultants. Moreover, transportation costs would also be too high for a farm size less than the recommended minimum area. Although there are three types of structures that can be installed and a wide variety of crops that can be grown for project analysis, we will be looking at growing cucumbers in medium sized tunnels, generally known as walk-in tunnel.
U-shaped metal pipes, each placed at a distance of 8 to 10 feet forming a tunnel are covered with plastic sheets. With the use of clutch wires, especially designed nets are vertically hung in these tunnels to support vertical growth of plants. These structures could last as long as ten years if properly taken care of with minor repair work. The following table provides details of the infrastructural items and their costs. The infrastructural investment, like in any business is just the installation cost. More than any other industry, agriculture requires a timely availability of sufficient working capital.
Once you have your tunnels in place, you will be constantly and more so patiently investing in your farm till the end of the season. After three months of sowing your farm, the production is likely to begin. Cucumbers will be plucked and sold at the ‘mandi’ every day. They will require care and nourishment for the next three months till the production continues. The prices will fall but that is not a reason to lose hope as the yield would increase with rising temperatures in the months to follow. No farmer can control the price of this produce but the yields, excluding natural disasters, are very much in his control.
The average operational cost of a walk-in tunnel cucumber farm would approximately be Rs345,000 per acre. With timely sowing, proper land preparation, optimum use of nutrients and effective precautionary use of pesticides, any farmer can get an average yield of 45,000 kg cucumbers from an acre of land. When the plants start giving their initial produce, prices are as high as Rs80 per kg and then steadily decline to Rs5 per Kg by the end of the season. According to most experts and the department of agriculture, it is safe to calculate the average price at Rs10 to 13 per kg.
Key to success
Stating reasons of success and failure, the Fruits and Vegetable Development Project Punjab Project Director Muhammad Asif Khan said, “The key to success in tunnel farming is to have experienced and knowledgeable human resource. It could be a consultant or an experienced farm manager. Secondly, you need to be committed to your profession; there is no holiday even on the holiest of days like Eid.”
Further emphasizing, he said “Select a land where water is good and cost effective labour is available in abundance.” Sales and marketing aspects of farm produce significantly affect the whole project’s viability. The sole effective way to sell produce is to send them to the ‘mandi’. ‘Mandis’ are wholesale markets with registered ‘artis,’ middle men acting as brokers between the retail sellers and the farmers. Having a good network in the ‘mandi’ is utterly important for the business.
One of the most common frauds prevailing in the ‘mandi’ is that the buyers present at the auction are the brokers’ own men who are bidding at low prices. How to avoid such situations? Have your own staff accompany the goods to the ‘mandi’ and over see the sale yourself. Moreover, maintain contacts of many different brokers in different ‘mandis’ and call each one of them to find out the last days average rates before sending your out goods. Keep changing your ‘arti’ as this will allow you to see how different ‘artis’ work.
The larger your produce the more careful the broker is not to lose you as his client. There are other avenues of sale as well, for example hypermarkets. These hypermarkets get into contracts with suppliers before the start of the season and one can sell most of the produce to them, however according to Khan, recently some of these stores have also turned to the ‘mandi’ for procurement, as goods are easily available there and that too at standard rates. The Punjab Agriculture Marketing Company (PAMCO) has initiated a new project, the “Sunday Bazaar.”
Only farmers are allowed to directly sell their produce in these Sunday Bazaars set up by PAMCO. Currently, there is only one Model Sunday Bazaar set up in Islamabad. However, since farm produce has to be plucked every day, you can only sell part of your produce in these bazaars and most of it will have to be sold at the ‘mandi’ during the week. Khataab, a young engineer graduating from the US and later working as a radio anchor and television actor, has decided to choose tunnel farming as a career this year.
Khataab is one of many young educated individuals who, realising the need of the hour, have turned to agriculture and tunnel farming as their plan to start off their careers. Tunnel farming will pose its challenges, keep you on your toes for six long months and then reward you tremendously for your efforts and progress. It is this dynamic nature of tunnel farming that intrigues most young entrepreneurs turning towards this field.