This week, I had a two-part interview series with Financial Times (FT) London. They had wanted my insights on precision agriculture innovation for a special report they are working on. I do believe that the Cambrian moment is here for agricultural technology and this redesign is unbounded by geography. Any decent-talent engineer can combine many of the APIs, software systems, IOTs, etc and come up with something that can have real impacts on animal and crop farming. Yes, even the local free-range chickens across African villages can be advanced to deliver more with technology.

The real challenge though is making money doing it: working with price-sensitive customers like most African farmers requires new business models. You have to invent something from scratch because anything they have abroad will not work. Why? The natures of our farming systems are totally different for the models and processes to be adopted without drastic adaptations.

Agtech remains one of the main areas I have noted which people can explore as they look for business ideas in Nigeria. Here is the complete list of exciting business ideas in Nigeria at the moment. Read them for some insights and perspectives as you plan for a mission into gross margins.

• Agro fintech: creating financial solutions geared for the agriculture sector with the use of technology like apps, web apps, AI, blockchain, etc. These will include agro-lending, agro-insurance, agro-trading, etc. FarmDrive, a Kenyan enterprise, connects unbanked and underserved smallholder farmers to credit, while helping financial institutions cost-effectively increase their agricultural loan portfolios

Finally, when FT runs the piece, I will share. Of course, they can put it under paywall cutting out many of us, including my humble self, as FT is a subscription-based newspaper.

The Nigerian press liked my message to farmers in the National Stadium Surulere on Thursday. I had keynoted a major agriculture gathering, Convergence.

I have challenged our farmers to do away with norms and dogmas and become businesspeople. It was a very powerful message that technically pushed many out of their comfort zones.

You cannot kill a goat for your ancestors to make you rich, through better harvest, as you plant your yam, even when many of them died poor doing what you are doing today. While we celebrate our heritage, it is instructive to note that fallow periods have been halved because of population. So, what worked in the past is largely irrelevant because farms are lesser fertile.

I told our farmers that it remains shameful to expect government to feed us with food supplies when we are FARMERS. Yes, we cannot afford community of farmers going hungry! It must stop in this nation.

Over the last 72 hours, all the major newspapers in Nigeria have carried that message (Guardian, Punch, ThisDay, Nation, etc) with snippets on their digital versions. And the responses have been positive as farmers reached out and appreciated the insights. Yes, my goal was to give many a new purpose to return to farms.

Farmers Urged to Embrace Technology

THISDAY Newspapers
Speaking at the event, an entrepreneur and international scholar, Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe, said the time has come for Nigerian farmers to move …
‘Farmers must embrace technology’ – The Nation Newspaper
Farmers urged to embrace technology for better yield – Guardian (blog)

Farming is a business; it is not a cultural way of living which must be done without profit and loss. You need to innovate to drive productivity. Embrace technology and thrive for Nigeria. Time for hungry farmers must end!