Cashing Out As A Farmer with Oyindamola Asaaju

Oyindamola Asaaju has 4 years of progressive experience in the agricultural business industry. She holds a bachelor's degree in home science and management from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta and also a Masters in Business Administration. She worked with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) youth in the Agribusiness office as Team lead where she coordinated all activities from production to processing to capacity building. She now serves as Founder and CEO of Farm Republic, an Agribusiness Startup based in Lagos established in 2018 with the aim of creating market solutions for farmers using technology.

Below is the summary of the interview Cashing Out As A Farmer with Oyindamola Asaaju

While recalling childhood memories she spoke about her plans to become a nutritionist at a time but this was not possible leading to her studying home science and management. She shared her passion for kids in rural communities lacking social amenities and how she had been able to support people in such cases. She recounted that her love for Agriculture had started while working at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture where she saw that there were many opportunities in the Agricultural space. Seeing this she began by meeting with people doing well in the field and in other African countries after which she became inspired. Now she manages farms for people and deals with crops and livestock farming.

She revealed that if one is to be a farmer they need to be informed on what to plant, when to plant and how to plan. She said it was important if one is to produce according to the market demands and avoid wastage while reiterating that market information was very important for farmers. She said it was also important for farmers to understand that agriculture is more than a hobby as it is a business with different areas to it. She said that before going into agriculture one needs to study their environment. Beyond having a piece of land or an idea of farming one needs to know how it is set up.

She maintained that farming was a very lucrative business if one had the right technical expertise. She spoke on the common challenges farmers face like lack of market information, bad roads that make it difficult to move their produce as well as a big gap in storage facilities.

For farmers who are just getting to start their business she advised against taking loans but they should instead start with what is available. This she said was not advisable, as most banks would shy away because of the risk involved and so she was of the opinion that farmers should have insurance instead of taking loans.

With respect to climate changes, she advised farmers to begin to look at irrigation systems, as the rains were not predictable anymore. She shared her tip on managing losses saying that farmers could look into processing their produce and when they are not able to sell their cassava, for example, they could process it into garri or fufu.

To people looking to go into farming, she advised that they have to first know the aspect of agriculture they would venture into and then they can begin to look out for experts in that area. Speaking on innovations made possible with technology she cited successes in genetics technology which speeds up the growth of cocoa seedlings from 4-5 years to 18- 24 months. She also mentioned the innovation of soil-less farming which allows crops to be grown in the air this she said has helped to minimize farming space.