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| Afere Lawrence |
Young agro entrepreneurs in the rural areas are smiling to their banks. They are changing the age-long perception that agriculture is not a profitable venture. Their story is that of overcoming poverty, DANIEL ESSIET reports.
For the Chief Executive, Springboard Entrepreneurship Development Initiative, Lawrence Afere, based in Akure, Ondo State, the rural areas are precious and deserve to be cherished. They are characterised by diverse landscapes and climate. This also means an advantage to organic agriculture.
His farm projects create awareness to farmers of new possibilities in practices and techniques that support profitable organic farming.
Besides this, Afere’s innovative drive and constant experimentation with various crops have resulted to a rich harvest. He is a farmer who trained as a business administrator at the Covenant University. He also trained as a social entrepreneur at the Northwestern University, Chicago, International Institute for Global Leadership, Ashville, United States (online) and from Kanthari International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs in India.
The mission of Springboard is to create an entrepreneurial and productive community of youths from various backgrounds, who work together to enhance their livelihood and community through sustainable agriculture.
At the Springboard farms in Akure, they grow plantain, banana and maize. They also produce chips from plantain. In future, he plans to grow cocoa and all kinds of vegetable.
For him, successful farmers, irrespective of their locations, require skills to build enterprises. From his experience, learning financial, marketing and other business basics is as helpful as the investment in their projects.
In addition, the work of farmers is beyond their products – farmers need to defend the landscape, the soil fertility and the biodiversity.
For this reason, he has established a training school for those interested in building agricultural businesses. In his training school, young people are exposed to diversified farming programmes.
Besides this, he has an absentee farmers programme for those who don’t live in Ondo State. His team operates the farms on behalf of investors, saving them the pains of travelling long distances.
Also, Chief Executive, Niji Group, Mr Kolawole Adeniyi, is setting up a rural farm estate in Oyo State.
According to him, the project will consist of diversified activities, including facilities for individuals, groups and other visitors. Apart from creating jobs, he said his motive was to encourage farmers to become involved in local development.
The project will bring an increased level of awareness among the farmers of the need for sustainable development and diversification. It will provide an experimenting zone for creating employment and self-employment opportunities.
The Provost, Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State, Dr Samson Odedina, said there was the need to provide opportunities for young rural people to develop entrepreneurial skills in agriculture.
He said the college’s programme provides young people with the training and support they need to establish businesses. He highlighted the need to give young people opportunities to build their capacities, providing them with skills and technical information to enable them take the lead in agric development initiatives.
A farmland realtor in Ogbomosho area of Oyo State, Debo Thomas, is looking for young people with serious interest in farming.
Thomas believes the government cannot afford to continue to underutilise the young people as they are presently. For him, enough education, financing and guidance is necessary for those in the rural areas that want to start a farming project that can lead to greater opportunities in the future.
Experts say emerging young agro entrepreneurs represent a huge potential resource to their communities. They say many rural communities are ageing because, in the absence of incentives to remain, young women and men leave rural areas to seek opportunities elsewhere.
They argue that when young people begin to see that smallholder farms can be transformed into dynamic, innovative, modern businesses, they will be encouraged to choose agriculture as a career path. Their skills and talents will thus be harnessed in generating a vibrant rural economy that offers employment opportunities both in agriculture and off the farm.
Source: The Nation
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