Summary of the Event
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Farmer Ogbole Samson is the Lead trainer for Farm lab. Farmer Ogbole Samson has a B.Sc. Biochemistry Igbinedion University; M. Sc. Biochemistry, Ibadan, and a Biochemistry PhD candidate, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Nigerian born, American raised Opeyemi ‘Ope’ Awe is a perpetually curious, globetrotter with a passion for governance and economic development in Nigeria. Ope was awarded the prestigious Posse Scholarship to attend Grinnell College.
Q & A (SELECTED)
Opeyemi Awe: Tell us about your journey specifically in Nigeria, what role does seasonality play in food production experience in Nigeria. Also has your experiences being focused in Nigeria or globally?
Samson Ogbole: For seasonality, using tomatoes, the most consumed crop in Nigeria. The price of Tomato is going to crash in a week or two plus buying a basket of tomato for about #4,000-#5,000 because that period s when farmers are able to produce more than enough. Unfortunately, as the price of tomato crashes as farmers produce more than enough but majority of the tomatoes goes to waste. The price of tomato goes back up during October, November, and December that is because of seasonality in production.
The seasonality of food production is one of the major reason why food itself is super expensive. The gap I am trying to fill is having a technology that can produce a crop all year round for the cheapest price of a crop in its season so that the price becomes cheap all year round. However, there is a need to ensure the technology is climate smart in order not to burn the planet while feeding people therefore, winning in one area and loosing in the other areas.
Therefore, there is need to ensure that as the food production is going on at the same process at the same time it does not have a negative impact on the environment. Balancing technology adoption with profitable is very important with local farmers as they do not want to spend so much money for nothing, which is seen via efficiency and productivity. So farmers are willing to adapt to technology that increases productivity and efficiency.
Opeyemi Awe: What would some of the infrastructure, institution of challenges of working in a place like Nigeria bring about?
Samson Ogbole: Urban and Peri-urban farming has been what we’re trying to push for about 3-4 years now because by having farmers in urban and peri-urban area. Soiless farming (growing crops without the use of soil is one that we’ve been trying to push) such that urban centers will have farm literally in their cities. With that it won’t be necessary to harvest down based on the market you are expecting.
Therefore to a large extent, the issue with transportation is also taken care of. However, we advise farmers to focus on crops that are non-perishable like cocoa, cashew because the values doesn’t depreciate regardless of the time it takes to get to the market. Having a proper dialogue with government requires a successful microscale with data to backup productivity in order to mitigate the problem to bring solutions because no one would want to fix a problem that doesn’t bring money to the table or contribute to the economy.
Opeyemi Awe: How did you end up in agriculture and why it’s important to you?
Samson Ogbole: First I started off with medicine at Madonna University and my passion was to study something that was really tangible. In the course medicine in my 5th year or so, I got in touch with top guys in medicine that said if truly you want to make change, you need to study a course that actually affects people live. Medical Doctors are awesome and great but they are more at the end of the delivery system. You won’t hear something like a medical doctor has discovered this drug or that drug.
Fortunately for me, my school had issues with accreditation, so it was easy for me to switch to biochemistry, so I left Madonna University to Igbinedion, finished up with Biochemisty, During my NYSC year, fortunately I was posted to IITA for my compulsory one year service. When I got there, I was fortunate to work with Dr Nobert Vamoma, the head of yam improvement for income and food insecurity in West Africa while I was with him, he showed me agriculture from a different perspective.
Opeyemi Awe: What is one challenge that you would like to the community to help you think about and What are you very about this year 2020 and looking forward to professionally and personally?
Samson Ogbole: The major issue right now is how to translate the message we have into local dialect because of the language barriers so that they can understand.
That’s the fact that when we started soilless farming, people called me wizard, it was abnormal but now it is no longer a question of are you breaking nature? Going against God, it’s much more of how much money can I make. So I have won the fundamental part by moving in their direction.
Quotes
“Food Production should not be seasonal because hunger itself is not seasonal.”
“One of the ways to ensure that we can drive down the price is to ensure non-seasonality in food production.”
Top Comments
I think the youth need to haer more of this from you Ogbole Samson- Augustina
FURTHER READING
Kalantari, Fatemeh & Nochian, Ashkan & Darkhani, Faiza & Asif, Nayeem. (2020). The Significance of Vertical Farming Concept in ensuring Food Security for High-Density Urban Areas.
Kalantari, Fatemeh & Mohd tahir, Osman & Akbari Joni, Raheleh & Fatemi, Ezaz. (2017). Opportunities and Challenges in Sustainability of Vertical Farming: A Review. Journal of Landscape Ecology.
Samson Ogbole.( 2016). Seed yam production using single node vine from plants in aeroponics.
Sharanaiah Umesha, Honnayakanahalli M.G., Manukumar, Bhadvelu Chandrasekhar. (2016). Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security. Biotechnology for Sustainable Agriculture.