Rice More Than Just a Meal
[Music]
[Applause]
thank you for having me this optional
before i commence
i must confess that this gathering is
not by accident
because success does not come to
everyone by accident
it comes via commitment of one’s
strength mind wisdom knowledge
and determination provided that changing
of mindset
remains constant in every society
i am a graduate
of computer science that does not know
anything about computer but in
agriculture
i am from cancun village in ushila
kagamot of ninja state
and the full meaning of the word can
come means big farm
where we have potential of vast land
with irrigation facility
with irrigation facility with a dam of
capacity of 3.5 cubic metres
of water
the entire village was manned by
all agricultural agriculture but
in since 1980s
the community was the the condition of
the community was
75 percent of the community were living
in poverty only 25 percent
who are living above poverty which my
father has to be
the part of them the only successful
families in the community were those
that were able to send their
children to school to acquire a degree
to gain a government job
of which my father was a champion farmer
living in poverty he now also wanted to
see
how he can also have a decent life
in the world he now put him into school
at the age of five was going to put me
in primary
private school in my local government
area the distance between my village
and local government area was seven to
eight kilometers
and there when i was going for my
primary education
i was wearing two uniforms a day because
my father had nobody to help me in the
farm
because we must have farmed before we
eat today i’m
going to talk to you on a topic rice
more than just a meal meaning that the
opportunities in rice value chain
if you compare what you call if you
if you think of in nigeria as a whole
the majority economy of nigeria is crude
oil
and afflicted as a resistance during the
crisis of
covert 19 where the all controls locked
down
the consumption of crude oil under
petrol was reduced by 80 percent
but we cannot stop eating food
we have to farm before we eat
then the country was dependent on
importation of foods
if the crisis should exit that period
what will be the fate of our nation
today the answer is this
we have to change our mindset
my father made up his mind to train me
to school so that i can
be have a degree so that for me for me
to have a decent life
to also pull and pull him out out of
poverty
i remember when i was going to school in
my parents school i have to go to school
with a bike after my
after my class from school i still have
to branch farm to help my father
i was doing two things at a day or go to
school now still come back to farm
to help my father
in those days all the mission of my
father was
to see that i have a very sound
education to acquire a degree
so that i can pull him out of poverty
unfortunately it doesn’t go the other
way
during my secondary school i was
opportunity to meet
with the children of richmond and
those whenever i’m in presence of my
colleagues
they’ll be sharing their lifestyles
their father my father is this my father
is a
barista my father is an ambassador and
then when it comes
my tongue i kept silent because my
father is a farmer and
in nigeria once you just you are a
farmer that you you are nobody
kept silent i was thinking ask asking
myself why
my father is a farmer why my father
didn’t go to school so that i could have
a decent life in the world
my father kept sacrificing after my
graduation from
secondary school i got admission to
federal university of technology here in
mina
i applied for a civil engineer as a
course
and unfortunately not the way the way
the country the german
situation is the letter gaming and
agriculture as a course
i denied the admission because my father
has been a champion farmer for more than
years and that nothing happens there’s
no any difference it’s
in poverty why would i go and study
agriculture in the university
i’d rather change i still wrote
another jam unfortunately
in the year 2010 i was admitted here in
the federal university of computer
science
i was glad that have so that i can be a
software engineer be a natural so that i
can
have money to pull out my father
out of poverty after my graduation
i got a job with nigeria
telecommunication company item where
they were paying me
50 000 era per month with this
i was calculating my feeding allowances
my transportation allowances
even my accommodation have to be within
this fifty thousand era and my father
has made up a smite i’m now a graduate
with a degree
i’ll pull him out of poverty
that was how i was struggling
to the extent that the most
challenging part of it in my life was
when i was working here in mina
and my father took a lawn with a
microfinance bank
what a millionaire community to buy a
fertilizer
unfortunately the floyd was everything
away
and that the farm was not insured so
i was here in the office working and i
had a phone call
that my father was arrested by
soldiers i cried
why me in this world why me
in this world i went to
where my father was detained and i asked
them to erase the name of my father as
an individual
they should write my name as indepther
so that i can pay part of my salary i
deserve
50 should be going to the loan i took my
father took
so that i can pay as life goes on
so that was how struggling it
and the breakthrough came out
when the effort
i had a breakthrough breakthrough during
intervention of
effective cdp when the international
fund for agricultural
development in collaboration with fargo
motor from nigeria
decided to key in into poverty
eradication and job creation in rural
areas
through agriculture or rice evolution at
value chain our location our village was
one of the
locations when the the state coordinator
met my father
that this is what they want to do in the
community
and that they want a youth a graduate
that can pilot the old activities
they gave me my father gave them my
contact want to be invited my father
thought
they are going to offer me a better job
so when i came back my father was very
anxious after having meeting with them
and the first thing that came out in
their mind was that
please we how much is my slice of 50 000
let’s see
they want me to change my mindset and
embrace agriculture as a business
i should stop seeing agriculture as a
permanent business
but a big man business
when i came home went to work and i met
my father this is the situation my
father thought
they are going to offer me another offer
for me a job but
to continue with what you have been
doing for more than 80s
i made up my mind that insha’allah i’ll
be there
i resigned from the job i was in and i
embraced
agriculture as a business under the
first
training i got from the program was gap
good agronomic practices you know in
those days as a farmer
we just broadcast the
disease and the other things and that
everything was manual and that was why
as i graduate
you’re going to farm this look so
embarrassing why are you a graduate
you’re still going to farm
look at it’s just so an ugly that you
are a graduate
having a decision you you’re going to a
farm
so then the program introduced me to
what we call good economic practices
because we see more of 80s the average
yield in the community was just 1.5
metric tons per hectare
which is very minimal very poor compared
to other countries
thailand under china and india
have been producing 10 to 10 10 to 12
megatons per hectare
and that would have the same potentials
being the land
or the water resources why can’t we
emulate so that we can step our
feet into the same shoe with them i got
the training from university of
agriculture
mccode on good again practice and a
mechanization
so on how to avoid using
manual methods by going to make and make
a nice farming
and also good at ergonomic parties to
avoid direct seedling by going to
transplanting so that we can have the
good
yield so in the community
everything i learned i say i must put
everything
into practice i started putting
potentially by the
first year of my practice
i hit up more than from 1.5 metric tons
to
6.5 metric tons which is very good
number i started having a million so i’m
feeling myself a big boy
so this is real that is the only aspect
in production
so this is real then
my father started feeling it yes this is
real
you see also in those days we do what we
call
manual tracing the program also
introduces to
how we’ll be using the mechanized
traction so that another you some youth
come all
can also be carefully employed in the
value chain
and in those days if you consider after
the production
there’s no market because the old
country
is more on importation of rice
relying on from china and oranges
seeing that what we are producing is not
proper the program also came up
with a very good initiation
aggregating after the farmers have done
the harvest
there’s way housing where we do the
quality control you do the waiter
measure
to to the standard
of quality that should of take us
there i was able to also champion the
the process of which i employed five
graduates in the
five graduates in the aggregation center
i paid them
i paid them 30 000 monthly
[Applause]
directly 10 10 youths are employed
under me or them as payroll and
indirectly more than 27
people are employed on the level
so this is my youth uh quality control
he’s a graduate of computer science also
he’ll
take care of everything
within the having this knowledge the
program and i also
have now become a champion in the
community the entire state
to the extent that the program now sends
me to lead a team of fairfields from
nigeria to attend an agro-pastoral
summit in cameroon
where i as a panelist i gave a lecture
on
water management and under land
management
they have become top and i’ve seen
agriculture as a business
and then a few years later may 2019 i
was also given
official invitation from to represent
nigerian
in senegal to discussing the modalities
on hadith
on how to talk with importation of
agri agricultures from to
to african countries there was such as a
finalist to discuss all how the
modalities the
the chances the privileges
in the rivalry chain where you more
youth can be employed
in the value chain there i met with some
of the
some of the youth from the ghanaians
that they also discussed their account
their problem facing in their rural
areas
of poor economic practices there i
championed the team and i also
put them through and as i’m speaking to
their doing
very well this is my life achievement
through agriculture i was able to get
married to a very beautiful
three kids sponsor my wife to to be also
be a computer scientist
because being a graduate as a computer
science i don’t have time to go for
to practice computer i’d rather
put myself my wife into school to train
as a computer
scientist i see this is my house
and at least the awards have obtained
the state i was
i received award in sheraton
orton abuja as the best rice producer in
niger state
and also best best
aggregator in asia state
this underwood thank you for listening
my message is this please
agree is one of the
agri nigeria future economy
youth should be engaged in agriculture
when you see a sea green green is agric
you see green
is money thank you