MULTAN: Options to embark upon small and medium entrepreneurial ventures in the agriculture sector are innumerable, despite the fact that low public sector investment has left the rural areas with poor socio-economic infrastructure.

The business opportunities for small investors in the agriculture sector range from acquiring cultivable land on lease to livestock farming and operating farm machinery on rental basis to marketing of the farm inputs and produces.

The pure agricultural ventures like cultivation and livestock farming demand long-term investment and patience while the others promise daily earnings.

Profitability in the crops depends on a variety of factors, including fertility of the land, quality of seed, agronomic practices, plant protection measures, weather conditions and proper marketing, which by and large depends on the behaviour of middlemen called 'arthy'. However, a land capable to cultivate two crops a year can be acquired at an annual lease of Rs10,000 per acre, while the investment varies from crop to crop.

Crop rearing, that too, on the rented land on a small scale is the least recommended venture because the ever-increasing cost of production, declining per acre yield and market inefficiencies can render the investor pauper very soon, especially if he or she does not have the agricultural background.

However, a multi-pronged approach to the investment schedule can make agriculture a profitable business. For instance, cattle rearing, both for milk and meat, can make the business venture in the agriculture sector a profitable one. Most of the agriculturists believe that it is the livestock that often rescues the farmers when they suffer losses in the crops.

People involved in the livestock business say a farm having 100 cattle heads raised for meat can be managed with a total investment of Rs610,000 that included buying of calves at Rs1,500 per head, Rs50,000 as transportation expenses to bring the calves from market (Karachi and Lahore) to the farm, Rs40,000 annual rent of a four-acre piece of land to be used for cattle pen and fodder cultivation, Rs70,000 for the construction of cattle sheds and Rs300,000 for feed, labour and other operative expenses.

After a year, weight of the each calf will approximately average at 175 kg. The prevailing rates of the live meat are Rs50 per kg, thus the venture can enable the investor to earn a net profit of around Rs250,000 in year with as little an investment as Rs600,000. But, the key to success is the proper management.

Similarly, a dairy farm having 30 buffaloes/cows to produce milk can be established with a capital of about Rs1 million with each animal costing Rs30,000. After calculating the operative cost that included land rent, labour, feed and fodder, the investor can earn Rs3,500 to 4,000 per day after milking 450 litres of milk and selling it at Rs12 per litre to the middlemen. The flock will give milk for a period ranging from nine months to one year. Later, each of the animals can be sold at abattoirs at a price around Rs7,000.

Fish farming and poultry farming, however, have been running into uncertainties for the last few years owing to import of cheap fish from Burma and exorbitant poultry feed prices and attack of diseases.

An investment of Rs650,000 to Rs700,000 to purchase a tractor and other implements can help earn a net earning of Rs1,500 daily after excluding the cost of fuel, depreciation and the wages of driver and his helper. A tractor usually works for 12 hours a day at a rent of Rs250 per acre.

Similarly, if someone has more capital in hand to invest, he or she can import a second-hand combined harvester at a price ranging from Rs1.2m to Rs1.4m. However, the harvesters remain in demand for four months a year to harvest the crops of wheat, paddy and sunflower.

A harvester harvests about 20 acres a day at a rent of Rs700 per acre, thus it earns a gross income of Rs14,000 per day or 1,680,000 in a season. After deducting cost of maintenance, fuel, transportation and labour the harvester can give a net income of Rs1.2m in a season or year. It is said that about Rs100,000 has to be spent in a season on the transportation of the harvester from one place to other.

Among others, there can be retail shops of agricultural inputs, including seed, pesticides and fertilizers, workshops of implements manufacturing and repair, fruit and vegetables processing for export purposes, goat and sheep farming and many more.