Last year I quit my job to start an agribusiness. A month later, India's Prime Minister announced a nationwide lockdown to tackle the onset of the first wave of COVID in India. That had a serious impact on my business. I could not visit my farms and I could not get any produce. All the capital was lost. I tried to make up for the loss by trading agri-commodities, but the volume and profits were so small that I would have had to wait for years to recover anything. 

I changed course and decided to switch to growing on my own rather than work with farmers. It seemed to be a more capital-preserving approach and would teach me more about what I was trying to achieve. I started in September. By then the lockdowns were over, and movement was easy. I planted some 15 crops in a small 2-acre area of land. 

Now the thing with growing plants is that results show up after 3 months. Some crops did well. Some did not. I realized a few things though. The land was too small for 15 crops. I could generate a meaningful yield of any crop to sell to a bulk buyer. Moreover, the plantation of every vegetable does not need to be phased over weeks. To add to my problems, the timing of harvest coincided with the worst harvest time as far as prices are concerned. 

Anyway, after all those mistakes and learnings, I started the plantation again at the end of February. This time, the seeds were bad. They did not germinate. FML! A month was wasted waiting for germination and then I had to spend more capital to buy seeds. Now when the plants seem healthy and the produce is about to come, not all plants are producing fruits at the same time. There seems to be no end to problems. To make matters worse, this whole month of May will end up with lockdowns all over India. My hopes are not too high for after May because India has failed miserably in preparing for COVID and the country may seem a long drawn out wave of reduction in COVID cases and deaths. 

I farm in a village near Delhi and now COVID seems to be reaching villages. I hope that by some miracle, COVID in villages is contained and things get back to normal, or else, this will be the 3rd season of failure. And with capital running almost dry, I do not know how I will survive another failure, plus there are bills to pay as well. 

I knew that there will be challenges when starting something new. Perhaps, I was not prepared for all the mistakes I have made and for how long the mistakes will continue. There have been technical learnings as well during this period. I am hopeful that barring external forces, I should not make any mistakes on the growing front during the next season. Also, by concentrating on 1 or 2 crops, I can take care of the yield issue that I have faced. However, times are tough and all this is mentally taxing. 

Entrepreneurship is not easy. Agriculture is even tougher. There is a long waiting time before one can see results and all this while fighting forces of nature - heat, pests, and whatnot. Finding a market isn't easy. Even when there is produce, transportation costs need to be covered. Labour costs need to be covered. Any small amount of produce is pure waste. The important thing I guess is to keep learning and fighting the negativity. Self-belief and humility are extremely important. Will to survive and fight back are the best tools one can have. 

I am right now hoping to generate some form of income from this season, else the only income left would be delegation and curation rewards that are enough at current prices. Hoping, BTC goes higher and pulls other coins with them, so that I can survive another season. Fingers crossed!