Brothers and Sisters of the Soil and Spreadsheet,
We didn’t just come here to count our goats today; we also want to know why they all live in one pen.
The story of Uncle in Ntcheu, the Potato Prophet who thought Irish potatoes were the best crop, is well known.
He planted them with hope, picked them with pride, and then watched the market crash like a rumour on WhatsApp. His potatoes couldn’t buy him airtime or even respect.
His neighbor’s chickens, on the other hand, laid eggs, grew in number, and paid for a solar panel. The old people cried. The young people laughed.
And the goats agreed by nodding their heads.
But don’t worry, because Ecclesiastes 11 says, “Give a part to seven, or even to eight…”
In modern terms, this means to diversify your crops or be ready to trade them for boiled eggs and used trousers. We’ve looked at the holy table of investment knowledge:
- Cassava for strength
- Goats for mobility
- Poultry for quick returns
- Chillies for profit
- Sweet potatoes for food security
- Groundnuts for nutrition
- Soybeans for oil and export
- And value addition for real profit
We have admitted to our sins of trapping capital:
- Fancy farm buildings that only termites like
- Machinery from other countries that sleeps more than it works
- Livestock that eats ROI for breakfast
- And homes that eat up budgets like locusts in a cornfield
But we are sorry today.
We threw our bread on the water, wrapped in cassava leaves and with a plan for a poultry business.
We promise to start small, learn quickly, and never again watch the wind while our neighbours plant.
The Bonet Framework 