We often receive complaints of people wanting to go into the business of farming.

These are people who are most in need of money to start the farm project of their dreams. The big problem is that they don’t have enough cash. They have tried to approach some rural banks for possible loan but no bank would lend them money. That’s because they don’t have any collateral. And so they are very frustrated. They think that the banks are the only source of capital. Which is, of course, wrong.

We can understand why the banks would not lend to people like them because they usually don’t have the track record that would convince the bankers to lend them money. The bankers are not sure if they would be able to pay back their loans.

Anyway, there other means of securing the capital needed to start your dream farm project. And the story of Louie and his brother from Pampanga comes to mind. Louie was a commercial photographer taking pictures of weddings and other occasions.

Now, he is more of a vegetable farmer. His brother is also growing vegetables on his own now.

Several years back, the technician of East-West Seed Company introduced to them their high-yielding hybrid vegetables and taught them how to grow them. They learned the techniques, all right, but they didn’t have enough capital to finance their project. Earlier, they had seen their neighbor make a lot of money from the same vegetables that they were taught to plant.

They knew that no bank would lend them money. But they thought of a bright idea. They have a relative who is working in Subic and who had the money. They proposed to him a joint venture in growing hybrid ampalaya and some other cash crops. They detailed the cash requirements of the project and explained to their relative the possible returns.

Fortunately, the relative was convinced and readily provided the cash. With the technical advice of the East-West technician, Louie and his brother were able to produce a good crop of ampalaya and other high-value crops. In just one growing season, the joint venture was able to make a profit of about P250,000. The partners divided the profit equally.

And from then on, the brothers embarked on their individual projects using their share of the profit as their capital. Today, Louie is producing vegetables on four hectares throughout the year. Of course he is now financially well off. And so is his brother.

And what is the lesson here? You have to look beyond the banks for the capital you need. Like Louie and his brother, you have to be creative in looking for the cash you need in your farming.