Bolstering rural economies, Africa Rice Centre Nigeria believes is not just a matter of helping existing agro businesses, but also encouraging new ones. This is what it is seeking to achieve by raising a new generation of rice entrepreneurs that are technology savvy and making money.
Young agro entrepreneurs will soon pad their mobile wallets with more than just mobile money, they’ll get on-demand farming advice, too. Driving this is a campaign to boost rice business in Nigeria which experts believe has a big potential to contribute to food security and even generate foreign currency from its export. Though rice is one of the nation’s staple foods, most farmers produce less than they consume, and most don’t have access to mobile farm advice. Consequently, productivity is very low and improving it is one of the most pressing issues.
To this end, Africa Rice Centre, a leading Pan-African rice research organisation committed to improving livelihoods throughout the continent, is partnering government agencies to boost rice production and improve farmers’ incomes. This time, the centre is training agro-entrepreneurs that will deploy the speed of information and communications technology (ICT) to put information into the hands of farmers who want to get information about good rice farming practices to increase yields.
Since communications technology has become one of the most effective ways of reaching remote farmers, the centre is raising a new group of tech savvy rice entrepreneurs in major countries in Africa.
According to the Centre Rice Commodity Specialist in Nigeria, Dr Philip Idinoba, the emergence of mobile technology in agricultural practices has made the sector more attractive to the younger generation.
Idinoba said the centre wants to engage young people in farming as a business and to provide a sustainable livelihood. To achieve this, he said the centre plans to train young Nigerians to become rice entrepreneurs who can use mobile technology to bring many benefits to farmers and their families, including raising productivity and helping to lift smallholder farmers out of poverty and contribute to economic development. For a start, the centre wants to demonstrate this in Nigeria and Mali. In Nigeria, the training is scheduled for six states.
The states include Nassarawa, Niger,Jigawa,Kogi,Kebbi and Kano states. The emphasis of the project is acquisition of skills along the rain value chains and the transition of the trainees into business in the sector. Idinoba believes technology is going to excite young people to join agriculture, promote economic development, and drive sustainable livelihoods for their communities.
To this end, Africa Rice has developed RiceAdvice, an Android based decision support tool. According to him, solutions provided by the software are location-specific and can help rice farmers produce sufficient food with higher profitability.
The internet-based tool,he added, provides rice farmers with advice on the optimal timing, amount, and type of fertiliser to apply to their crop to maximise production and profit and reduce waste. The young entrepreneurs will be trained to offer a tailored suite of services available via mobile phone. Young entrepreneurs will be engaged to collect information from a farmer through easy-to-answer questions about cultivation conditions.
The answers are transmitted to an online database to develop a fertiliser recommendation matching the specific needs and rice-growing conditions of that farmer. He expects the young entrepreneurs to provide this service for a fee.
Expected users also include extension workers, private rice sectors, development agencies who are interested in advice for rice production.
The Head Farming Systems, Rice Sector Development Hub, the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI),Badeggi,Niger State, Dr. Samuel Bakare, said young agricultural entrepreneurs can tap into opportunities all along the value chain: from supplying fertiliser and seed, to processing, transporting and marketing of food. Once tapped into, he believes such opportunities can turn young, jobless Nigerians into success stories.
The rice entrepreneurs, according to him, will be taught how to make money using rice threshers or help farmers thresh their rice farmers for a fee. The rice thresher, he explained, enables smallholder farmers to thresh their own rice without having to hire extra labour.
To increase the supply of improved seed—especially in rural areas,he said Africa Rice will be working with NCRI to train young and other farmers on good agricultural practices and facilitate their certification as rice seed producers. He said if young Nigerians can be trained to produce and market seeds , it could be the starting point of a viable seed enterprise. They will be trained on the production of quality seed, seed selection and entrepreneurship. In addition, they will be trained to function as freelance extension agents.
Speaking further on Rice Advice software, the Principal Scientist , Africa Rice Center and lead innovator of the application, Dr. Kazuki Saito, explained that it is an online platform that engages young people who are interested, inspiring and using agriculture to generate income and employment.
He said though RiceAdvice can be largely used without an internet connection, an active connection is required from time to time to synchronise information with the database server. According to him, the young agro entrepreneurs, who will provide services as freelance extension agents will be trained to use their phones to generate tailored recommendations they give to individual farmers for a fee.
With the app, he explained that rice farmers will be able to use their resources efficiently by choosing a suitable variety, avoiding a failure in crop establishment, and using an efficient fertiliser application. This, according to him, could help reduce their risks and make rice farming better and more stable.
He said the automated rice fertiliser and input recommendation tool that has been tested over the past two years can successfully increase farmer’s income per hectare by one ton.
By providing farmers with accurate information, he said farmers can enjoy better harvests, which can translate into higher earnings and more reliable profitability. Thus, he said RiceAdvice makes rice farming attractive to young people by changing the perception that rainfed agriculture is an all-or-nothing occupation.
With Rice Advice, he said, the young entrepreneurs serving as freelance extensive service providers identify challenges confronting rice farmers and collect data which will be transferred online. The use of the tool, according to him, improves business efficiency and profitability for young ICT saavy farmers.
He said positive feedbacks are coming from farmers on RiceAdvice.
Regional Representative, Africa Rice Nigeria, Dr Francis sees youth entrepreneurship as the way to tackle unemployment across the continent. Nwilene said the centre intends to promote local production and create job opportunities for youths.
Director-General,Africa Rice, Dr Harold Roy-Macauley said the centre is determined to work with the African Development Bank, to develop young entrepreneurs, Nagropreneurs, in agriculture. This is because African countries face the challenge of providing employment to the young.
For sustainable economic growth to become a defining reality across the region, he noted that young people must be empowered to transform agriculture.
According to him, a system of mentorship, handholding, and bridging support will be provided to launch youths into higher-value crop production using modern agriculture and agribusiness methods. According to him, young farmers need to aspire to be successful business people and even those who do not see themselves like that at all could learn to become more entrepreneurial.
Source- thenationonlineng.net
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