Still in the euphoria of this year’s International Women’s Day celebration, Yetunde Oladeinde, in this piece, spotlights some Nigerian women farmers breaking the barriers and doing great things in a vocation hitherto preserved for men.
In the past, men dominated the farms. It was hard work, toiling for hours with farm tools that required strength, while the women were the backups; or at best planting food for the household at the backyard.
Interestingly, that trend is changing fast; with some women now making significant strides, acquiring farmlands, toiling and providing food for their families and communities; even earning foreign exchange for commodities, using resources and strategies that are sustainable.
Angel Adelaja-Kuye, the founder of Fresh Direct, produce and agro development – allied consultant and entrepreneur is one of such women.
She shared stories of her turbulent beginning with The Nation: “I started with traditional agriculture and faced many of the same challenges others faced. Finding land as a youth was difficult, but I was able to rent. Access to technology was expensive, so I decided to build them myself.”
The opportunities and challenges were myriad. Investing in infrastructure, land clearing, electricity, digging boreholes, staffing and building structures were some of the hurdles, but like a determined athlete, she kept running, focusing on the opportunities.
Her company brings together communities and technology and focus on engaging youths in agriculture with technologies that aren’t backbreaking.
“We pivoted to focus on urban farming because it is better, more eco-friendly, cost efficient and sustainable. The solution is to make agriculture exciting for youths, lower the risk, do it all year round regardless of location as well as cutting out long transportation times with simple technology. We just had to use our creativity to look at things differently,” she said.
Interestingly, Angel studied Epidemiology at Michigan State University and Biology at Temple University but found interest in agriculture and entrepreneurship, which led her to start her own business. Her major focuses are women and youth empowerment, utilising grassroots campaigns, technology, and innovation to assist these groups in solving global issues.
Omolara Svensson is another female farmer to watch. She is the CEO of OOK farms, a subsidiary of the OOK Group. Her journey started with determination as an entrepreneur and a vision to empower women and youths.
“OOK Group started in Sweden in 2003 as African Way Café. African Way Café was the first of its kind in Sweden, serving not just Nigerian delicacies, but delicacies from all West African countries”.
Then she started bringing food items from Nigeria and Ghana into Scandinavia, not only for the café, but also shipping them to African individuals in other Scandinavian countries.
“This was when I was exposed to the role Africa plays in feeding the world. I saw the opportunities, I had the vision and I pursued it. When I shipped my first 20ft container of food out of Lagos in 2005, the feeling and sense of accomplishment, words cannot describe.”
Her hard work and dedication paid off and in a short while, Svensson and her business became sought after.
“By 2009, supply orders and LPOs were flooding in; demand for food items we never took seriously, was in the high all over Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. I then started searching for interested partners and investors. I approached a couple of banks as well and this was where the reality started to set in.”
Not so easy at this point! The challenges were many but she made up her mind that she was not going to give up. Not only was her gender working against her in this regard, she also realised at that point that the country itself had no understanding of the enormous wealth there is in the sector.
“My late husband, Tony Svenson, had in the earlier years signed me up for a training in Business and Investment Studies, where I had learnt how to trade, and I started channelling all this into the business.
Armed with training and the necessary information to explore the myriad opportunities, she ventured into export of charcoal amongst other things.
“At the time I started farming, my mother couldn’t see any reason with me, no matter how much I tried to explain and make her see reasons. The painful part of this was that she wasn’t alone. Most people did not see what I saw and couldn’t tap into my vision. To top it up, the Apapa gridlock was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. It was almost impossible to have a reliable team to work with, as most of the staff were only looking for a shortcut to success and were ready and willing to do whatever it took to get fast and easy wealth. The serious-minded ones only used us as a ladder to get Canadian visa and left, most of the time with little or no notice. On the other side were the gender-based issues, which despite our track record, still find a way to resurface at every turning point.”
It’s a journey of determination and a lot of courage. “I must say it took a lot of strength and determination for OOK to have come out of it all and still be standing tall. Not only have we come out of all these trials today, but we have also come to realise that problems are part of growth and we, as a company, and I as an individual, see our challenges as opportunities for us to do better in all we do.”
Svensson added: “It breaks my heart to see the enormous opportunities that the state has. I believe it is time we started acting, enough of the charade”.
Infrastructure, she stressed has been a great challenge, “but that should not stop us from pushing forward. The problems are part of growth and we must realise that nobody would give women and youths a free template. I didn’t learn how to plant my tomatoes easily, it took me years. We have yams, cassava, maize and others. We just set up a processing plant in Cotonou “.
She continued: “Today, we have our farms in various parts of Oyo and Kwara state respectively. Our O.O.K Agribusiness Academy has also been launched and our second term for the year 2022 starts on the 1st of April 2022.
At the academy, we work towards redirecting the African populace to wealth in agriculture and agribusiness.”
Seun Ogidan is another successful female farmer. Interestingly, it was not her first love. She stumbled into the sector because she couldn’t find headway for her desire to study Medicine and Surgery. But somehow during the admission process, it didn’t happen and she opted to go for Agric Economist and Extension Services.
“The desire at that point was to go and work in a commercial bank. I started and we did the theoretical work in school and were doing things normally.”
Then in 2012, she went to the IITA as a serving corps member and that interestingly became a turning point in her career. “I served under the Cassava Breeding Unit and learnt a lot of things. My father is also a farmer and as a child, we always saw it as a dirty job. We just went to help then because he was our father and he would pay our school fees”.
She continued her story: “One of the works we did was pollination and I wondered what they were pollinating then. So, I was interested in that and wanted to know more. Even before that, I was exposed to the Initiative for Youth Agroprenuers and something within me told me that there must be a purpose for this”.
Two years after, Ogidan was opportune to be the youth link for a project called High Quality Cassava Plant Project. “The purpose of the project was to train youths in agriculture. We were able to organise youths and in doing that, I discovered that there is a code in something called cassava. Initially, I was contented with my salary and after that year, I handled another project called TTA. Here we organised youths into clusters and also made another set of discoveries at this point.
“I discovered that training women and youths in Agriculture is a business. In 2016, I decided to set up my own business and started with two hectares and I was still working. It wasn’t that easy but I monitored it to a great extent. I was on ground to see things for myself, unlike other people who were contented with people just sending pictures of work going on at the farm.”
It turned out to be a bumper harvest, huge profit and the turning point for Ogidan in life.
“In 2018, I registered the business fully with CAC and I was ready. I told myself that I was not throwing away any opportunity again. I decided to serve myself and I was also motivated by the statement of the DG of IITA, who said: “Seun, you need to serve yourself; you are hardworking, serve yourself”.
Happily, she recalled how she started fully in 2018, engaged a manager and invested N600, 000. ”After this, I went to my boss and informed him that I had done the land preparation, I had the planting materials and to God be the glory, I was supported by IITA and I was able to plant the field. It wasn’t easy but we were able to breakthrough”.
The challenges also came with the opportunities. Instead of being deterred, she was determined to keep pushing and forge ahead. “We know that our farmers have little or no access to improved planting materials. There is little we can produce with research; they need someone like an extension agent, an intermediary to produce what they need. So, I realised that I can be that extension agent to the farmers and help with the planting materials.”
She also informed that she moved on with 25 hectares and did a few other things: “In the past, there was no business in stem, it was only the roots and during that period you would see the farmers cry and sell everything. In producing the stem, you would get between 800 or 1000 bundles and still be able to get the amount invested”.
Progress and more progress.
“In 2019, I was able to do 30 hectares, 20 for Cassava and 10 for maize. One of the challenges we faced was fire outbreak. It has not been a smooth journey but once you are prepared, there won’t be a problem. After doing the harvesting of maize in January 2020 and was waiting for a machine to dehusk, we had a fire outbreak and almost all the harvested maize got burnt”.
Frustrated and confused! Yet, she told herself that she was not going to stop. “I told myself that if I fail this year, I would not fail next year. We moved on despite all the setbacks. We sold the cassava we had on the farm and planted again. Now, I have another farm in Ijagba, its five hectares. I love doing this because it sustains me and the family. It is indirect and direct job creation. Having 30 to 35 hectares of farmland, I cannot do it alone. I work with men and women and realised that women are committed no matter the challenge”.
Kafilat Adedeji, founder of Prudent Associates Agro-Industry under the brand name UFARMY is also another pacesetter that has carved a niche for herself as far as mushroom farming is concerned.
Happily, she takes you into world. “My experience has been a very interesting and challenging one. Imagine a female entrepreneur thriving in the Nigeria business environment, especially in the Agriculture sector that is well dominated by men. I have had to survive the environment with a lot of resilience and a never giving up attitude. Combating one challenge to face another challenge and now at a point where that thing called resilience is now a part of my DNA having realised the entrepreneurship journey is all about creating solutions and solving challenges”.
Each day, Adedeji informed that the journey comes with its own unique learning process and fulfilment. “So now I enjoy every bit of what it presents while striving to becoming a better version every day.”
She explained that: “I got attracted to mushrooms because of the facts that it is very unique. Mushroom is neither plant nor animal! It requires some technicalities, so barriers to entry are relatively higher. I had always wanted to build a sustainable business birthed from my academics professionalism as well as build a mice for myself. I hate unhealthy competition”.
She also informed that: “It requires comparatively low capital and more importantly low space to set up profitably. I got attracted more due to the fact that I can start a farm from the comfort of my room without having to go through the rigours of tilling the land which I was used to from my experience being born into a farming family and my many years of agricultural study and experience working for other farms”.
Today, seeing mushrooms grow is more like fun and interesting and has many potentials to save the planet earth, especially in this era of climate change effect impacting all spheres of life.
“I got the opportunity to work after my NYSC in an integrated mushroom farm – the largest supplier of mushrooms to Shoprite, Lagos, Nigeria as of 2014. I discovered the potentials of mushrooms then that I had to develop a novel method of using the spent of mushroom substrates to combat the diseases of tomatoes in which my boss had spent a lot of money and efforts on to save his investment. I left the farm to develop my Masters Research in the University of Ibadan based on this challenge. Concluding my Masters research was a very great turning point to helping me start my own business based on my expertise in the mushroom production industry”.
On her part, Elizabeth Olarenwaju Nwankwo informed that beyond farming, processing and commodity export, are areas that women and youths should be interested in.
“There are countries in Africa like Gambia where they import eggs, frozen chicken, garlic and onions. That is opportunity for me or you to take poultry birds to the Gambia, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, and Conakry .If you are familiar with that terrain, you would see that Gambia is seated inside Senegal”.
A good entrepreneur in the sector, she stressed must look out for a problem and solve it. “The soil in the Gambia cannot farm cassava that can produce Garri. Their cassava is a sweet one that is cooked, the way we cook yam and everyone wants to eat Garri there. That was how I started taking Garri to the Gambia; opportunity abounds on a daily basis”.
From Garri, she went into other areas exploring and understanding the opportunities that were exportable.
“You must also know the rules and policies of the country you are taking it to. This includes the importation rules and quality rules. Most of the things that are permissible here, you cannot do elsewhere. For instance, when you want to take Garri to Switzerland or any other Western world, there must be no sand, no glass, no dirt and they would even check the moisture”.
She continued: “The same thing goes for corn and soya. They would tell you the percentage of oil that is expected in your soya and the kind of certification that you should hold. Cocoa is still one of our major commodities but we have lost the position. Nigeria used to be number one, now we are number four or five. Then we have cashew, shea butter, shea kernel and shea oil. Shea butter is known more for confectionery than cosmetics. What we think all along about shea butter is not real, shea butter is edible. It is at least 5 per cent in every chocolate, an alternative to cocoa butter.”
