I have had to break this into TWO PARTS..Please endeavor to read.

When I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was to place a call to an Agric Consultant who was introduced to us at the IOY recently. He is one of two that I have been speaking to recently.

We talked at length about the plans of encouraging the idea of setting up FARM SETTLEMENTS across Yoruba land for the multiplier benefits to our people, motherland and country at large.

It’s an idea I have had on my mind for many years since 2007. At some point in 2015 I and a few friends set up an NGO called the SOCIETY FOR ADVANCEMENT OF URBAN-RURAL MIGRATION [ SOAURM ] through which we tried to drive the idea of encouraging the reverse trend of rural-urban migration but we got distracted along the line.

I got too busy myself and I couldn’t concentrate on it.

So this morning the consultant said so many things and gave me some useful hints.

Personally I have a deep interest in farming and agriculture generally and now, as Convener of the IGBIMO ỌMỌ YORUBA I am happy that many of our members share the same passion for it.

Between JUNE of the year 2020 and JANUARY 2022, about 18months, I tried my hands on practical farming. It was tough and I got my ten fingers thoroughly burnt, lost a great deal of money, people’s money and it is still an issue hanging on my neck.

I felt very bad and still feel bad about the very disastrous experience BUT I LEARNT a lot of useful lessons, the types you will never get from Internet or from Books.

They were very practical lessons and experiences I gathered from that 18-month stay.

Ordinarily, I don’t think there can be any legitimate endeavours which should be more profitable than agriculture.

Take for examples:

1. If a man plants A SINGLE SEED of corn in the earth, by right and if everything goes well, he must reap within three (3) months at least two to three cobs of maize, from the tree of that one corn, which must each have not less than 200 units of such original corn planted it.

That would mean that the farmer had gotten at least FOUR HUNDRED FOLDS of what he planted originally.

2. If you took a length of CASSAVA STICK measuring about three feet, cut it into three pieces of a foot each and drill the three one-foot stick into ground. In 12 months, each of the single sticks will grow into a small tree where you can get at least 50units of One-foot sticks for another round of planting and its ROOTS becoming at least three hefty CASSAVA TUBERS.

By the time you gather the outputs of that original three-feet stick together you may get enough to make one or two paint buckets of garri or some other derivatives.

3. For tomatoes 🍅 and pepper 🌶 a single tiny seed of those two can germinate and grow into a small tree within three months and can be producing tomatoes and pepper continuously for about four weeks four you.
4. It’s same for livestock like goats, sheep, cow,s, snail, fish etc

No matter which one you choose, the return is heavy.

So what’s the PROBLEM HERE?

How is it that most people are not able to make huge money or good returns from this? How is it that most investors end up losing all their money? Or how is it that we leave such things, abandon wide expanse and abundance of lands and be running after vanities all over the cities of the world????

The answer is simple.

It is a difficult business in today’s Nigeria, something you have almost ZERO CONTROL over many of the indices.

Farmers have control ALMOST OVER NOTHING, not even their physical strength, hands and feet because a man can wake up in the morning paralyzed in his bed or even dead.

Unless you are doing it just for a hobby, having a small garden or keeping a few birds or.goats in your compound or nearby, the business of FARMING/AGRICULTURE is extremely challenging and that is why we are having a generation of POVERTY-STRICKEN FARMERS, RICH INVESTORS LOSING MONEY AND A FEW SMART OPPORTUNIST CROOKS MAKING ALL THE MONEY AS MIDDLEMEN OFF-TAKERS.

1. You need money, GOOD MONEY, Bank facilities or things like that.
2. You will need MACHINES to aid your work
3. You will need EXPERTISE from Agric Professionals.
4. You need READY MARKET or you have your own PROCESSING.
5. If you don’t have No.4, then you need STORAGE.
6. You need TRANSPORTATION.
7. You need RAINFALL if you are dependent on rains or otherwise you will need IRRIGATION.
8. Connected to No. 6, you will need ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE.
9. You need high-wire SECURITY especially if your location is deep in the forests like my own location of experience
10. You need the most difficult of them all – MANPOWER.

Not even General Olusegun Obasanjo and many of our big men in Nigeria were able to survive those TEN (10) REQUIREMENTS of successful farming business.

Yet the vast MAJORITY of our real farmers are now very poor people who go to farm in 21st Century with HOES AND CUTLASSES, work themselves lame for little or no meaningful rewards and very often get themselves killed by Herdsmen or other brands of criminals.

This is why our villages have become empty, our cities getting overpopulated and all manner of vices, frustrations and insanity have come together to conspire against the masses of Yoruba land to create our current conditions.

In the past, in the days of RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENTS such as that of the ACTION GROUP of Chief Obafemi Awolowo Ọ̀dọ́lé Ilé-Ifè, a man NEEDED ONLY to have interest in and desire for Farming/Agriculture, ALL other things were assured and reasonably provided by the Government.

It is definitely no longer so in today’s Nigeria.

And this is the Crux of the matter which I shall address in PART 2.

Thank you.

WeHaveMissedRoad

ThinkYorubaFirst

© Adedamola Adetayo
21 August 2024