Hello All,
It is my delight to contribute to the ongoing consultation. I would like to address three of the topics the consultation centers on.
1. Experience as a Youth in the Agriculture Sector
My experience as a young person involved in the agricultural sector in Nigeria has been sweet and sour, sweet because I grow my own food, most of them anyways and also make money from growing it when I sell the produce. I also train other young people living close to me, on my farm various crops they can make money from and those far away using the internet(WhatsApp) and their success makes me happy. Sour because of the numerous challenges involved in farming two of which for me has been having reliable experienced farm hands(despite the fact that i train young people on how to effectively grow the horticultural crops I grow and use them on contract basis, they tend to absond especially when I need them the most). Second of is getting good land for farming near my farm. Most of the land here have been mined on and their top soil removed, hence I am settled with a small space that I have to grow in sacks by mixing soil with manure. Second is the slow acceptance of technology use in Agriculture in Nigeria, leading to no customers most of the times.
Growing up in a family farming background, I developed an interest in farming even though I wanted to study engineering. Well, I eventually studied Agriculture(B.Agric with options in Soil Science and Meteorology) and after my compulsory National Youth Service (NYSC), I started my company Agritechnovate Solutions Enterprise which so far saw me involved in various farming areas: Poultry(for egg production), Horticulture - African vegetables: Ugu(Telferia), Ewedu(Jute), Amaranth and Celosia; also crops like Cucumbers, Peppers, Tomatoes.
2. Major Achievements and Success Stories
Well, major achievement for me as a young person involved in the Agric sector in Nigeria has been starting my company, because by means of it we have been able to train many young people, setup several farms across the country, procured and installed farm technology in farms. Technologies such as nipple tip drinkers for farm animals, drip irrigation systems, sprinklers, spray tubes and other technologies for crop farmers.
As a service oriented company, we need clients who wants their farm setup or who needs our procurement and setup of farm technologies service, due to the slow acceptance of technology in the Agriculture sector in Nigeria we utilize innovative ways of getting clients using the internet. We promote our services on our Facebook Page and share them on other Agric focused groups with high follower ship, that way we reach a lot of people who may be interested in our service. We also advertise our farm technologies procurement and installation services on a popular forum board in Nigeria - Nairaland, where we have gotten most of our clients for 3 years now! We also share our services on Agric focused WhatsApp groups, and on my Agric blog.
Success story? Well, not your typical kind of success story. Like I mentioned, technology is been slowly adapted in Agricultural sector in Nigeria. I remember when we started promoting the use of technology in farming by the use of treadle pumps, drip irrigation, sprinklers at all there was zero to nothing response, many farmers prefer to wait for rain or use only a petrol pump and one hose to irrigate 1 acre, however in recent times more and more people have seen the need to embrace the use of these technologies to make farming easier and attractive to the youth, until Africa as a whole adpats the use of technology in farming, most of its young population will never want to do agriculture or anything related to it!
Also learning of the success of those I have trained on various farming practices as well as those who got better results from using the farm technologies we installed for them, I feel ecstasy...That for me is real success!
3. What the Rwanda Youth Conference Should Address
If given an opportunity, I would you ask the experts at the Rwanda Youth conference, the following questions below centered on each of the three sub-themes –
a). Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship,
What incentives have you put in place to create employment for youth or empower young people already in Agriculture?
b). Digital Innovation to Overcome Agriculture Value-Chain Constraints, and
What sustainable digital solutions are available for young people to do business seemlesly across the value chain?
c). Future of Work in Rural Economy - of the conference?
What new opportunities will be made available in the Agric sector for rural youths?
Г-н Samuel Kalu