The Corporate Farmers International (CFI) an Agribusiness group, has restated its commitment to training more young agroprenuers in Nigeria.
A Co-founder of the group, Mr Akin Alabi said that CFI’s wants to induct more youth in agric space in the formal graduation ceremony of its E-learning Agro-Academy on Saturday, in Lagos.
Alabi noted that the platform of education technology is the way to go in raising young farmers in Nigerian agro- sector.
“We lacked professionals across the entire agro value-chains for a long time.
“Education is important to agriculture. You must learn first before you embark on agriculture or you just burn your hands.
“Hence a formal graduation ceremony for those that passed through the Corporate Farmers International E-learning Agro-Academy course,” he said.
He noted that the essence of the programme is “we tap into the future of technology in education through agriculture.
“The reason for the E-learning Agro-Academy was birthed from the COVID-19 pandemic. We thought of what will be the fate of our future farmers in Nigeria and Africa,” Alabi told NAN.
He said that the platform is centered on bringing young agroprenuers together so that they can learn about different agro value-chains and become professionals.
“It is designed specifically for youths, students, and other stakeholders within the agric. Ecosystem to become professionals in the Agriculture sector.
“We work with our partners MasterCard and Young Africa Works with the objective to train these youth through edu-tech.
“We want other potential partners to see this academy as a credible platform whereby agriculture in Africa can be well exposed to the international audience.
“We want to help, encourage and trigger young agroprenuers, so we can create value in the agro-space, our campuses are not doing enough,” he added.
On his part, the Farmer Management Executive and co-founder of the group, Mr Ade Ajayi, said it is important to raise the next generation of farmers now.
According to him, training these young students with the latest innovations in agric space will pique their interest to embark on farming.
“Most Nigerians say our graduates are not employable and that is the narrative we want to change in the agro-space.
“Most agriculture students are not excited about their course that is why we birth the E-learning Agro-Academy to change the narrative of these students,” he said.
Ajayi, however, “Our objective in Corporate Farmers International is Innovation and Agriculture. We want to make agriculture cool and acceptable to young people.
“Majority of our farmers are now old , so we want to inspire and encourage young people to embrace agriculture,” he said.
