Meet our first female farmer feature, Yinka Adeshola, from ikole town in ikole local government area of Ekiti state. She is a graduate of Geology from the federal University of Technology Minna but because of her passion for agriculture she delved into farming where she is doing so well . She has been in the agriculture sector for over 4 years and is the technical support and team lead for farmer clusters in Ago Amodu town in Saki local government area of Oyo state.
Within the cluster, Yinka cultivates over 1 acre of land where she grows vegetables (lettuce, spinach, basil) and fruits (Mango, cashew, cucumber, pear and orange).She is an agricultural consultant and also conducts trainings for farmers and intending farmers.
In the midst of her extremely busy schedule she found time to write a book,a highly informative book about farming in Nigeria titled “HOW TO FARM PROFITABLY IN NIGERIA”
She describes farming as a profitable venture especially if you know the tricks and apply the right technical know-how. She said “you can make more profit if your cost of inputs is low and also when you have target buyers and you offer a relatively low price compared to what is obtainable in the market. Her challenges lie in the buying or leasing of farm implements which is expensive, buying of genuine agrochemicals for pests and diseases control and the high cost of purchasing seeds and their occasional unavailability.
She pointed out that real agriculture is practiced on the farm and its very different from what bloggers and online agriculturists portrays it to be. She encourages new farmers or intending farmers to attend necessary trainings to get the basic knowledge before attempting to go into agriculture.