The Farmland

Ongoing conversations: Of Technology and Innovation in Agriculture

harambe — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:00:43 +0000

By Tukeni Obasi Since the news of the mobile phone policy broke, I have had very interesting conversations with Nigerians about the what, why, and how of technology in agriculture. Earlier articles on this column such as Nigeria’s Inroads into Space Technology for Agriculture, Mobile Phones for Upward Mobility in Agriculture, and Big Brother Agriculture [...]

Policy Lessons from the First Green Revolution Programme

harambe — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:00:34 +0000

By Tukeni Obasi In spite of everything going on in this country, I still believe we live in interesting and important times. For us under-30s, the rhetoric of revolution and transformation is the essence of our youth. But many times I wonder how our parents felt in their day. How did they feel on the [...]

Resurrecting Resolutions: Ikegwuonu and the Smallholders Foundation

harambe — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:00:28 +0000

By Tukeni Obasi It is the first week of the fourth month of the transformation year. As with all new years, while certain events and pursuits will be truly transformational in their ramifications, many things this year will be just as they were in years past. This is succinctly captured by the French saying: the [...]

Cassava Transformation: The Journey so Far

harambe — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 19:41:35 +0000

By Tukeni Obasi In July 2012 when Ireti Farms in Kwara State sent off its first shipment of 6,000 tonnes of cassava chips to China, the understanding was that “cassava [would] surely become the foundation for the economic development of [the] state” and that “with this initiative, Kwara [was] poised to take over from Thailand [...]

State of the Sector : Pluses and Minuses for Nigerian Agriculture

harambe — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 18:00:50 +0000

By Tukeni Obasi For individuals who have renewed their hope in agriculture, the statement by the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) two weeks ago that the sector was in need of a revival because for the first time in a while “agricultural growth slowed in 2012” seems almost counter-intuitive. How can growth [...]

Will Jack find his Beanstalk?

harambe — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 05:46:01 +0000

by Tola Sunmonu While perusing the World Wide Web to uncover the latest news in the Nigerian agricultural space, I came across a BBC interview with Jite Okoloko, MD of Notore. He discussed his reasons for moving back to Nigeria in the 90’s and his belief in the agricultural sector as a beacon of [...]

Policy Lessons from Operation Feed the Nation

harambe — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 21:05:34 +0000

By Tukeni Obasi I started the policy lessons from history series last month with the story of the National Accelerated Food Production Programme (NAFPP). For the benefit of those who missed that article, I will provide a brief recap. The programme was geared towards increasing the productivity of famers and improving their livelihoods through research, [...]

Challenges, Opportunities, and Innovations for Emerging Agricultural Entrepreneurs Part 2

harambe — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:51:16 +0000

By Tukeni Obasi Last week, I shared the story of a young entrepreneur and agribusiness strategist, Simileoluwa Lawson. He is one of the minds behind The Global Farmers Register (globalfarmersregister.com), an online agribusiness inventory of all stakeholders in the agriculture industry which provides content management, knowledge sharing, networking, information dissemination, and business matchmaking services for [...]

Challenges, Opportunities and Innovations for Emerging Agricultural Entrepreneurs Part 1

harambe — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:47:12 +0000

By Tukeni Obasi Chief among complaints made by Nigerians in the agricultural sector is the abundance of information gaps, which makes coordination among stakeholders very difficult. This is because many stakeholders do not know where the opportunities are and, as such, cannot exploit them. Additionally, in a knowledge-based field like agriculture, the lack of knowledge [...]

Lessons from History: The 1972 National Accelerated Food Production Programme

harambe — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:04:01 +0000

By Tukeni Obasi As seen from the mobile phone saga of a few weeks ago, government policies are received differently by different Nigerians. While for the group of Nigerians in their twenties, the news of a policy which is purported to create 3 million jobs and really transform the agriculture sector represents something new and [...]