When you think of farming, the image of a farmer in a remote village, working everyday under the sun, with basic farming tools comes to mind. Such image hardly inspires confidence in farming. Well, all of that is beginning to change....
When you think of farming, the image of a farmer in a remote village, working everyday under the sun, with basic farming tools comes to mind. Such image hardly inspires confidence in farming.Well, all of that is beginning to change.
I journeyed to Ijebu-Ode, a small commercial town South-West of Nigeria, one wet afternoon. There, I met a young man named Femi. He took me to his farm, it was a sea of green vegetation which flowed spectacularly towards the horizon.
“This (pointing to a particular portion of it) is a 10-hectare farmland belonging to one Mr Daniel who is based in the UK”, Femi tells me, “He is a chartered accountant and one of my biggest clients.”
Femi is into the business of managing farmlands for his numerous clients; from acquiring the lands to planting, harvesting and then sales. “I have been in this business for over 2 years. I also grew up in a family that cherishes farming a lot,” he remarks.
Majority of Femi’s clients are white collar workers. Their knowledge of farming is between little and average, so they rely on the experience of Femi and a WhatsApp group he created to receive updates about their farmlands.
Screenshot of Femi’s WhatsApp group
WhatsApp groups no doubt are increasing in popularity, as people use them for different purposes. For Femi, this is the perfect avenue to keep in regular touch with his clients. However, using WhatsApp to manage an agro project has its challenges.
Ade, one of Femi’s clients, laments about the pain of waiting days on Femi to upload pictures of farm progress on the group. “Sometimes he simply doesn’t give us any and that is our major grouse with him,” he tells me.
“Farming itself is big work; professional farm management is harder,” Ade admits. I couldn’t agree more with him.
Combining the work of managing the farms with being the group’s admin can be tedious work. For just one person, it is inefficient. There’s an easier way to go about these tasks. The technology that makes it possible does more than just sharing real-time updates to allay farm owners’ worry.
Technology as an enabler
Beyond the many ways in which technology is advancing farming operations, it has simply also turned farming itself into a real business. Few days before Ijebu-Ode, I met and discussed with Onyeka Akumah, CEO of Farmcrowdy, a digital agriculture platform, to get insight into how technology is driving the business.
“It’s amazing what we can do with technology. With our model which enables us to use technology to crowdfund investment for farmers, we are able to increase both output and revenue at the same time.”
According to Onyeka, one vital aspect of decision making when it comes to owning or sponsoring farms is the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) facet. Any system providing for such must be designed in a way that allows potential sponsors easily decide whether they want to commit investment in farms. More importantly, it must be free of all bottlenecks that impede trust in the system.
“Right from their mobile phones and laptops, they should be able to get help without consulting anybody,” Onyeka says.
One investor who has experienced first-hand how seamless this technology can be is Subomi Plumptre, a social media personnel. Rather than patronise one-man operations like Femi’s, she opts for a more organised platform. She narrates her experience on her personal blog.
“My first investment was a sponsorship of investment on 5 farms. The tenure was a few months. The subscription process was easy and I had the option of registering with my email address or logging in via Facebook. I filled all the information on the website and paid via WebPay at 8 pm. As a social media professional, I loved the fact that I could conduct the entire process remotely, without talking to anyone on the phone. I received fortnightly updates on the farms with pictures and was given the option of visiting the farms in person to verify progress. After the investment period, I received my principal and profit (of about 20%) as a credit to my bank account.”
With advanced technology making it possible to carry out (virtual) farm management with ease, I wonder why Femi is still stuck with a WhatsApp group.
He assures me he is working on “something” that will automate many of his processes and bring in more reward to his investors.
The scope of investment farming in Nigeria
Comparing modern farming with traditional farming methods, one can see numerous advantages — not getting one’s hands dirty, the allure of extra cash, to mention a few.
If Mr Daniel living in the UK could operate farmlands in Nigeria, one wonders if Nigerians resident in the country are keying into this opportunity.
