In Rural Cassava Farming, Lagos City Boy finds Way to Fortune

By Dr. Olukayode Oyeleye

Temitope Matthew Adewole had choices: either to join the bandwagon of white collar job seekers or to find a job for himself. He chose the latter, but decided on a job most young educated folks detest and disdain: that was farming. He is fast becoming an envy of his friends and colleagues, particularly those in the banking industry while most of his friends are still busy designing attractive curriculum vitae in readiness for any new job opening. Within a year of planting five hectares of cassava, intercropped with corn and water melon, Temitope has raised money to rent a two-bedroom apartment in an housing estate in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital. He has bought a fairly used Mercedes Benz 190 car for the purpose of overcoming his mobility challenges as he goes to his farm. He was able to help his younger undergraduate sister offset her tuition for one semester. And Temitope says he is happy with his work and is not thinking of taking up any paid employment.

Temitope, 29, is a graduate of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology from the University of Ibadan. His love for farming took him back to his roots in Ekiti State where he now practices farming. “I grew up in Lagos State where I was born. I attended my primary and secondary school education in Lagos State,” said Temitope who is not ashamed to be called a farmer. “What I do is farming. I am a farmer: of course not a peasant farmer but a professional farmer,” he stressed confidently.

He was not coerced into farming as he pointed out that “this is what I have loved to do. I decided to go back to Ekiti. Ekiti is my state but I was not born in Ekiti. My parents are in Lagos. I was born in Lagos State. They are still in Lagos State. I decided to come to Ekiti to start a farming project.” Not being a total stranger to agriculture because of his university training, he was comfortable with his choice. As he said, “I have practicalised it. I did it during my NYSC. I did it in school.”

He was not fixated on one option, though, as he recalled that, after his national assignment of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), he had to take some decisions. “After my university education,” he continued, “I was posted for my NYSC in Ogun State to Odeda local government in Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority. As a young graduate, I thought of what to do. I have seen a lot. My friends that are graduates already, and my brothers, could not even find jobs to do. So I decided on what to do.”

Crucial decision

I thought of a ‘plan A,’ to go back for my Master’s degree and a ‘plan B,’ to go into farming. How do I do it with no funds? I went back to Ibadan to pick up a form for my master’s. I was admitted.” Temitope had to put the programme on hold after completing his course work when he was about to commence work on his dissertation.  “Along the way, my uncle, Dr. Wole Olugboji, who works in Ekiti, called me, that I should come to Ekiti if I am interested in farming work. I decided to come to Ekiti to start a farming project.”

“My uncle said that there is this programme the Governor Kayode Fayemi’s administration is doing, that is the Youth in Commercial Agricultural Development (YCAD), if I am interested,” he said, adding, however, the caveat that ”he said it was not automatic. I was going to fight for it.” Emboldened, he took a forward step: “Since it was what I did in school, I thought I should be able to do it. I obtained the form and entered for the programme. Interview was conducted. Out of 1,000 candidates, 150 were picked. I was lucky to be among them.” Thus began the fortune and future of Temitope in farming.

Gratitude

Four personalities were mentioned by Temitope as prominent in his story: God, his uncle, his state governor and the minister of agriculture. While his uncle, Dr. Olugboji, opened his eyes to an impending opportunity state governor has provided, the minister of agriculture gave fillip to his morale. “I thank Governor Kayode Fayemi for this beautiful opportunity because I can tell people what I have gained so far. I am thanking God that it works out for me and it works out for some people, some of the participants,” he intoned.

Competitive advantage

What Temitope ventured into with some initial hardships has turned out rewarding in so short a time. “I have never worked anywhere in an office,” he confessed, describing farming as what “I see as challenging, but since I don’t have any job, I decided to pick. Many of us were called, but some couldn’t make it because they thought it wouldn’t work out.”

He started without any physical assets of his own, but has now started building his own assets. “When I came to Ado Ekiti and started the farming, I started with nothing other than what Governor Fayemi promised: that was the N1.4 million for each beneficiary. We were not given in cash but everything we use on the farm was provided but was deducted from the N1.4 million.”

“As you can see,” he said on his farm, “I have this cassava intercropped with water melon. I have harvested the water melon. That is why you cannot find it. This is the cassava. I have done this for a year, which I have harvested. I can really stand and call myself a man from the little I have made last year: just a year. I really say a big thank you to the administration of Governor Kayode Fayemi. It was a good initiative.”

 “There is a lot that I have done with the cassava money within a year that I can’t even say. I don’t think that there is any job one can offer me that I will run to and leave this farm. This is where I think my wealth comes from. I don’t think there is any place that would have paid me what I have realised so far. Within this short period, I was able to get myself an accommodation in Ado, which I couldn’t before. But now, I can boast of two bedroom flat even in an estate,” he disclosed, in addition to showing off his Mercedes Benz car. He was derided at first by friends and peers for deciding to go into farming. But he remained resolute.

Most friends did not see reasons with him at first as he said that “when I started it, a lot of friends were laughing at me. They said: “Tope, you that grew up in Lagos State, you are going back to your state to farm. What are you thinking of? What are you doing?” Even, the person I was dating could not make it up with me because of the farming that I decided to pick.”

That was then. “But now,” he revealed, “I am very happy because they are running after me. They want me to teach them how I did it.  A friend of mine sent a request to me that I should be his best man. He also told two other friends: two of his friends. He said we are going to need this, we are going to buy this. Whoever can provide for these would be the best man. Of course, the other two are working in a bank.”

“Immediately he told me, within 24 hours, (I just completed the harvesting my cassava and I still had a lot that I can still spend. I gave my sibling part of it, and paid my house rent) and I was able to pay within 24 hours; to send the money to him. He was very surprised. The other two friends working in the bank could not. They asked if the next two months was too late to pay.  I paid the money and I was able to go to Lagos. I told him I would pay for my accommodation to help him. I could afford the hotel accommodation money by myself, and that was from the cassava money.”

An apartment, a car and sibling’s tuition

“When I started, I was staying with my uncle that invited me. After a year, and when I harvested my cassava, I got myself a two-bedroom apartment in an estate in Ado Ekiti. One of the problems I encountered in the course of farming was transportation. It was not easy. When I harvested, I thought I needed something to keep me mobile. I decided to buy a small car for the purpose of my farming. This enabled me to move my cassava cuttings and transfer my labourers from one part of my farms to another.”

“It all became easier. Before, they used to complain because of transportation and some were not ready to come to come to farm because of transportation. The transportation has helped and added glamour to my life and got many of my friends interested because they did not believe I could get a house rented in one year or get a car within a year on five hectares. I am also able to help my sibling who is an undergraduate in the university in Ado Ekiti. I helped her to pay for one semester and told my dad not to worry, that I would pay for her.”

Icing on the cake

The role of federal government alongside the state government in boosting agriculture and empowering the youth was given prominence in Temitope’s comments. The motivation to produce cassava came after he heard the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, during his visit to Governor Fayemi on YCAD in Ekiti State in 2012. “Actually, my thought was to go into agriculture. The minister of agriculture has made it compulsory for me to go into agriculture; and that is because of what he has been saying, what I have been listening to, what he has been doing, what he said about the cassava flour, the cassava bread: I think with these, I could be able to make a lot from my cassava. That is why I ventured into cassava production because of what he said, because I know there will be market for my cassava.”

Temitope has this to say of the trio that inspired him into what he is doing now: “When my uncle, Dr. Wole Olugboji, invited me, I picked up the form for interview. We were not sure what we were going to make out of it. Until the minister of agriculture came and told us what we can make out of cassava. Then I felt more secure that I could make money out of farming because of the things he said.  He said we the 150 farmers that Governor Fayemi picked were very lucky and that, in addition to what the governor did, he too would support us, and that the governor was thinking in the same direction with him. He said, by the time we he comes up with his own plan, we will be the first to benefit in the state.”

Temitope called for cooperation between the federal and Ekiti State governments to boost the cassava industry. “I am using this opportunity to call on the federal government to key in to help. I have heard about this agricultural transformation agenda, which I think will really help. In Osin here, we have over 400 hectares of cassava  and these continue wasting when we don’t have processing units where we can process into the cassava flour that the minister of agriculture has made mention of, when he came visiting during the YCAD programme in 2012,” he noted.

“Another thing is that I want a situation whereby the federal government will work in collaboration with the state government to help the youth because what Governor Kayode Fayemi has done is really working out. I don’t think I need an office job,” Temitope emphasised.

Thinking business

Temitope is already thinking like a businessman. Now, he is looking forward to doing business with corporate agro-entrepreneurs. “Again, another thing is seed production. When I was in school, I did a lot on seed production. Today, in Ekiti, our peasant farmers just go for seeds. They don’t even know the one that is good or that is bad. Like a professional farmer, you need to take that seed to the laboratory to do the ‘selfing’, to know the ones that have bigger parents so that it will be the big offspring. I will like the federal government to help on this so that I can be linked to reputable companies that I can supply seeds for because we are experts on this: even cassava cuttings. When we harvest our cassava, we could easily sell the cuttings out. This is another gain for us.”

Cassava as wealth creator

While Temitope is glad for his own fortune, he tells of two contrasting experiences of other colleagues – one who stood fast and another who fell by the wayside. “I will share a story of one participant of YCAD. She was given 10 hectares to plant cassava. She did, but could not endure because there were a lot of fears. There was one employment opportunity that came up in Ekiti on teaching. They are supposed to be collecting N8,000 per month. She went for the job. She left the farm.”

Unknown to the lady, her efforts were going to pay off handsomely. But she abandoned the farm for a white collar job. Tope’s account on her was that “she didn’t know what she was going to make out of the cassava. She left for the job. After a year, we went there to harvest. I think they could harvest like two trailer loads costing about N800,000 out of the farm she has abandoned. She’s gone. She couldn’t continue. Of course, it is those that did it that would reap the benefit. I don’t think she must have made N800,000 within that short period of time. If you work out N8,000 times 10 months, that is N80,000. And, now, from her farm, they sold N800,000.”

“Another story to tell is a good story of a participant, a friend of mine,” Temitope continued. “When he was going to the farm on a fateful day, he had an accident. But despite the accident, he was able to do some things on his farm. At the end of the day, recently, the Ministry of Agriculture started selling cassava for us. He did not lie about it. The ministry of agriculture in Ekiti sold for him. He was able to make about N1.2 million.