As a volunteer and employee for three years in the Agricultural sector, I have become increasingly aware of the challenges around food security in my country. The neglect in food production in Nigeria has become increasingly problematic and aggravated by a host of factors like crude oil dependency, climate change, terrorism, herders and farmers clashes to the most recent Covid-Pandemic, which has further compounded the problem. Although I have engaged in community outreach programs such as conferences and online blogging (blog.farmsby.com), I believe that an MSC program in a UK university under the Chevening scholarship will provide me adequate resources to amplify my quota to my country. My goal is to build on the United Nations Sustainable goal, which envisions that a robust agricultural sector will produce a country that is free from hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty. For the sake of clarity, I will divide this career plan into short, medium and long term goals.
My immediate (In 1-3 years after graduation) career goal is to advance my career in the company I currently work with (Farmsby Limited) by applying for a managerial position as the Chief Growth Officer. This is because, despite being positioned for building efficient and sustainable smart agricultural systems, Farmsby has experienced a major setback in managing the problem of distributing produce to local communities and overall consumers, which in turn leads to tremendous post-harvest losses. By applying the principles acquired from my studies, I intend to develop comprehensive strategies to increase the food supply to 30% through functional input systems that involve building and strengthening our value chain and invest in a structured off-taker network. With the addition of value to low shelf-life produce and distribution, I will increase production efficiency at a reduced cost to make room for accessibility of quality produce to low-income earners. I also intend to employ 40% of these actors from the rural communities to foster inclusion and improve resilience: this is in line with the UK DFID's Rural and Agriculture Markets Development programme for Northern Nigeria (PrOpCom Mai-karfi).
My medium-term (3-5 years post-graduation) goal is to launch an annual agrotech convention. Through this initiative, I intend to train 1000 youths (60% women) in Nigeria with African specific agrotechnologies, equipping them with key systems necessary for agriculture to work in our ecosystem. The motive is to foster youth involvement, gender inclusion, agripreneurship and increase employability by 70%.
As a long term career plan (10 years post-graduation), I expect to have accumulated resources from the Chevening community and stakeholders in the agricultural industry through which I can leverage to establish an all-inclusive Agripreneurship Hub in Nigeria. The hub will serve as a focal point for people who are into agric entrepreneurial activities. The experience derived from this scholarship would put me in a better position to fulfil my long term goal which is to make the Nigerian agricultural sector accounting for 22.35% of the Gross Domestic Products in 2021<see statistics> more productive for bilateral trades benefiting the UK and Nigeria.