A good business plan will help your farm or food production business grow. It can improve your chances of receiving government grants or loans, help you manage your business through hard times, and identify additional forms of revenue like tourism or consulting.
Farming and agriculture is a complicated business. To be successful, you need more than a green thumb and the willingness to get your hands dirty. You need to know how to operate your agricultural enterprise efficiently and not just forecast your crop rotations, but your cash position and revenue. To do that, you need a business plan.
Planning processes usually result in plans, comprehensive documents that set forth goals and recommended strategies to achieve them. Farms and farmland may be addressed in a stand-alone section of a comprehensive or master plan, integrated into more typical sections (e.g., natural resources and economic development), or both. In some states and communities the planning process focuses entirely on agriculture or protecting agricultural resources.
