The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has provided farming input and equipment to young agripreneurs trained under its Youth in Agribusiness project in Oyo State. The distribution took place on Tuesday in Ibadan, with beneficiaries receiving tools intended to support their agribusiness activities.
Speaking at the event, Professor Michael Abberton, Head of the Genetic Resources Center at IITA and representative of the institute’s Senior Management Team, emphasized the role of the support in helping participants grow their businesses.
He encouraged the beneficiaries to take advantage of the support network created through the project and acknowledged the Kingdom of the Netherlands for backing the initiative.
“Youth involvement in agribusiness has been the focus of the IITA Youth in Agribusiness Office over the last decade, so this initiative is very important to IITA,” Abberton said. “By virtue of the training and input support, your businesses will be able to scale-up, coupled with the people you are bringing into employment by virtue of your expansion and the businesses you are creating. So, congratulations for being part of this.”
He added, “With your cassava, fish, horticulture, poultry, cassava processing and other commodities, this is a good start. The support network has been created and I hope you will continue to leverage it to expand your businesses. We look forward to seeing your businesses expand.”
Items distributed included solar irrigation systems, rotary slashers, defeathering machines, cassava stems, fertilizers, Gaari fryers, water tanks, vegetable seeds, fish and poultry feed, seedling trays, coco peat, improved maize varieties, generators, irrigation drips, knapsack sprayers and Gaari pressers.
Ms Aline Mugisho, CEO of IITA Youth Agripreneurs, was represented by Mr Idowu Osun, a Business Development Expert in the unit. Osun encouraged the participants to remain connected to the mentorship program offered by the project.
“This project is also being implemented in Abuja, Oyo and Ogun states, so we have a large pool of participants year after year that you can network with, and we have a top-notch coaching and mentorship program that will help you. We encourage you to stay in touch. Feel free to disturb us; that is our work. Agribusiness is big business and we are here to support you,” he said.
Project Coordinator Mr Adebayo Awotodunbo said the support was intended to help participants convert their training into viable enterprises.
“We want the training to translate to enterprises and then to big businesses, which is why we supported you with items that are critical to your agro-businesses,” Awotodunbo said. “We want you to scale up your businesses to be able to get better income and be employers of labor in your communities, and these inputs will help to make it happen. Above that, we want you to contribute to food security in Nigeria.”
He also noted that the project team would return to evaluate the use of the distributed items. “As the monitoring and evaluation team visited all the businesses for evaluation, they will be back to assess your utilization of this input and recommend if we should provide you with more input. But if you have sold the items, you are out of the scheme.”
Kushimo-Festus Oluwakemi, one of the beneficiaries, expressed gratitude on behalf of the participants. “You have impacted us and we will not let you down. For all the input you have given us today, we promise to make you proud because we will use them wisely and by the time you come back to check on us, you will be glad you gave us this support,” she said.
Representatives from project partners were also present at the event, including the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), HortiNigeria, YSJ Limited, and Farm Help Agro.
Benedict Ukpukpen, representing HortiNigeria, stated, “We are proud to be part of this impactful initiative, a critical step towards empowering young agripreneurs and strengthening our agricultural value chains. At Horti Nigeria, we believe that access to the right input, knowledge and network is key to unlocking the potential of youth in transforming agriculture. We encourage you to make the most of them, apply climate-smart practices and continue to build agribusinesses that contribute to food security, economic growth and sustainable development.”
Dr Odekunle, representing ILRI, acknowledged the effort of the organizers. “I facilitated some of the training for poultry farmers and I’m so happy seeing some of the faces here. See this support as a great opportunity to scale-up. Making use of all the things given to you and practicing what you were taught will go a long way to encourage other youths to embrace agriculture.”
