By Marc Reflects In brief • Three of us started EBM Farm, a pig farm, in June 2022 and closed it in January 2024. • The herd grew from 2 pigs to 63 at its peak, and we spent about RWF 11 million in total, but the farm never covered its own running costs. • The six lessons below cover feasibility, cash flow, partners, supervision, location, and facing problems early. • These are lessons from one experience, not universal rules In January 2024, we closed EBM Farm, our pig farm. Nineteen months earlier, in June 2022, three of us had started it with two adult female pigs, one Duroc and one Pietrain, a bank loan, and an idea we had carried since our university days in 2007. On paper, it made sense. We believed there was demand for pork in Rwanda and neighboring countries, an...
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