Last week, my wife and I were honoured by Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State for our family’s humble contribution to the development of the university’s Faculty of Agriculture. I also presided at the presentation of a scholarly lecture on “setting agenda for improving agripreneurship and rural development, amidst global challenges in Nigeria”.
I always love discussing agriculture especially within the context of my favourite career interests: entrepreneurship and strategy.
Today, the marketplace is indeed uncertain, complex, volatile and ambiguous. The situation in our country, Nigeria, especially in the areas of food security and employment, are very far from normal and worse than we have ever known.
As leaders in these uncertain times, we cannot afford to be complacent. We must challenge our traditional ways; question assumptions and open up to new ideas, new definitions and new practices. We must adapt and innovate. We must step up and do the right and necessary things; things that will work for us.
Professor Larry Robertson said “success is not a guarantee at these uncertain times, but repeated and impactful success”. We must urgently develop new and clear perspectives on how to succeed and thrive.
We must craft a new story for agripreneurship in Nigeria through a strategically ordered course of dynamic, creative and productive development.
Our focus is food security (physical, social, economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food), youth empowerment and the transformation of the potentials of the rural communities
Agriculture is the art and science of cultivating the soil, growing crops and raising livestock; processing plant and animal products and getting them to the market. This, in a nutshell is the agricultural value chain. “Agriculture is essential to life. It provides the food that nourishes our bodies, the feed and fodder for our animals, the fiber that clothes, houses and protects us, the fuel that heats our homes, cooks our food and powers our industry and the products that build our communities and grow our economy” (World Food Prize Foundation).
It is also business. It is science, engineering, energy, information, healthcare and technology. Keegan Kautzky, Director of Global Education at World Food Prize Foundation, noted that agriculture is the driver of the economies of several African countries today. “It is the leading employer and the primary source of income for most African families.” He added that, “the last 50 years have been the greatest period of agricultural innovation, food production and hunger reduction in all of human history and many of the most critical innovation and advances have come from Africa”. Examples of progress made include: development of relevant crops to boost vitamin intake and prevent blindness in children, digital access to farm inputs, credit banking and new markets.
We must use a trajectory of relevant strategies to achieve more successes. The first recommended strategy is the “value pricing strategy.” That is, creating values and capturing the values instead of “eating fractions of the value created as profit for subsistence living”. Utility of values of products and services has “pricing power” through customer experience and customer delight. Utility is the satisfaction experienced by consumers.
The small holder farmers in Nigeria are known and “trusted” for organic value creation through the production of safe and highly nutritious food. These farmers practice organic farming in their diligently managed farms. They do not use synthetic fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones, food irradiation and genetic engineering. Their cows graze on natural grass and the chickens have enough space to move around. They also use natural manure and practice crop rotation.
Medical science has proved that exposure to pesticides from conventional foods can to a great extent, cause Parkinson’s disease, fertility issues, cognitive decline and resistance to antibiotics medications.
Consumers are always willing to pay the price for value because it delivers the integrity of expected experience. Branding is also a strategic component of marketing of values because it represents an authentic promise.
The second leg of this strategy is the “Product Parity of the Value”. Agriculture in Nigeria can be greatly enhanced through product and service differentiation. Beneficial information from insights on benefits will greatly drive the sales process.
Another strategy that will enhance agricultural development in our country is relevant and effective adaptability to new technology-propelled methods being used in other agriculturally more advanced countries in Africa.
Nigeria’s young professionals should identify with these new perspectives of agripreneurship. Individuals and groups can develop niche markets through innovation.
Great opportunities are regularly emerging in the production and supply chains. Our young professionals should challenge themselves and put their value-delivering knowledge to test. Empowerment should come by way of self-motivation and our institutions’ readiness to support genuine efforts.
Creating an environment of openness and the cultural collective approach in which these young entrepreneurs can fully express themselves and lead, will encourage and ensure “competency of accountability”. Passion for agripreneurship should propel a “de-risking” mindset and substitute it with the ownership and growth mindset.
Agripreneurship as value-adding strategy and tool will surely connect stakeholders within the value chains, equip and enable them as well as assure fulfilment of life’s value.
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