Agribusiness and the Youth

Currently, Nigeria is taking giant strides towards encouraging youths in participating in agribusiness ventures. Statistics show that the average age of the Nigerian farmer is 55 years and if nothing is done to force this down, when this phase of farmers pass, there would be no new generation of farmers hence a possible major food crisis.

Recently, The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in collaboration with the Zamfara state government trained 7,000 graduates in developing skills in agribusiness. Another key programme is the Youth Employment in Agriculture and Rural Development which was launched by the erstwhile Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and now African Development Bank President; Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina. Adesina stated that the programme would develop 18,500 university graduates who will be formed into young agribusiness entrepreneurs called nagropreneurs. In his words, ‘’…they will develop business along the various agriculture value chains from the farms, storage, processing, value addition, financial services and logistics. Together with the recently launched presidential school initiative, we will connect the young school children in agriculture to the nagropreneurs and they will become the new millionaires and billionaires of Nigeria’’.

Success Stories

The efforts of the Nigerian government towards ensuring that Nigerian youths are encouraged in practicing agriculture have yielded dramatic results. Several young graduates and individuals have benefited from established agribusiness platforms and linkages.

Mr. Samuel Aenda is a graduate of Geography from Benue State in Nigeria, he is an ex-banker, a proud farmer and a beneficiary of the YEAP programme. He is the Managing Director of Tejimin Farms in Nassarawa state. With 7 hectares of land, he has green houses and open field irrigation systems for the production of hybrid, high quality, high yielding vegetables.

Mr. Muniri Umar is another beneficiary of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda. In 2011, he was supported with a grant of Fifteen Million Naira with which he set up a fish farm. Today, he produces averagely 70 (Seventy) tons of fish per quarter. He advised youths to see agriculture as a viable source of revenue earner and should take advantage of the initiatives.

Inspired by the ongoing transformation within the agricultural sector, Mr. Ajayi Nurudeen Oladele is a 23 years-old Fisheries and Aquaculture undergraduate of Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State. He has developed an animal-feed formulation software called EasyFish formulator. The app is peculiar to the aquaculture subsector and unlike other existing apps provides the user with the analysis of crude protein of feed/feed ingredients as well as classification of the feed.

Challenges

Despite these success stories, there is still a lot to be done. Many youths still abhor a phobia for the supposed drudgery associated with farming. There is also the challenge of getting a start-up capital. Most young people do not have access to sufficient capital needed to start mechanized farming. The initiatives are helping but there is a need for other stakeholder agencies and private sectors to assist the government.

From an onlooker’s perspective, one is inclined to believe agriculture is the new currency. Food will always be in need, and when there is demand, there is bound to be business!