No farmer, no future

“Without agriculture we are going nowhere, no farmer, no future”. This is how Kolo Juliana, one of the IITA Youth Agripreneurs organizers, stated the relevance of fostering agriculture among the youth. “Now that they have been trained, she added, they can go back to their places and impart the knowledge among other youth”.

Under the slogan of “A youth to youth approach model”, IITA Youth Agripreneurs organized an intense 10 days training on agribusiness in February for over 30 youngsters from the region of Cross Rivers State, Nigeria.

IITA Youth Agripreneurs was established in 2012 with the aim of fostering participation of youth in agribusiness. During these days, the different participants learned not only is there a place for youth in agriculture but also they must take the lead on that in order to facilitate the involvement of the youth in agriculture. “Now I know that as a young person, with the knowledge I have gotten, I can start a business on my own,” explained the participant Isoni Eme.

Besides reinforcing their practical view on agriculture by learning the macro propagation methods of breeding, some of the participants could confirm as well the importance of the marketing tools application to agriculture sector. “Marketing is as important as anything, said the participant Ita Ibok, no matter how good the product is, without the application of marketing principles, such effort might be useless.”

Watch the full report of IITA Youth Agripreneurs here.