Some things I learned the expensive way. Do not plant anything because the rate was good last year. By the time your crop is ready everyone else has planted it too and the rate has collapsed. A buyer who pays on time at a slightly lower rate is worth more than one who promises a high rate and pays in ninety days. Keep records even when nobody asks for them. The year you need to prove something — for a loan, a certification, a dispute — you will not be able to reconstruct it from memory. And talk to the farmer two villages over who is doing the same crop. In twenty five years no competitor has hurt me as much as my own lack of information did.