Remember the chiché about young educated Nigerians and their supposed aversion to farming? One man has stolen the headlines recently for showing that there are exceptions to this rule. And he is doing it big time.
Rotimi Williams, a 35-year-old former journalist, owns Kereksuk Rice Farm, the second largest commercial rice farm in the country. The 43,000-hectare farm is located in Tunga, Nasarawa state, and employs a large number of indigenes.
Mr Williams journeyed on a fairly successful professional path before he decided to become a farmer. According to the University of Aberdeen alumnus, it was his stint as a journalist for Euromoney magazine in London that opened his eyes to Nigeria’s potential in Agriculture. He concluded that if agriculture could play a dominant role in the economies of such African countries as Kenya, Ghana and Zambia, it could thrive as well in Nigeria. When he returned to Nigeria, he found to his disappointment that many financial institutions (including the bank which he worked for) did not seem to be interested in funding agricultural projects. Feeling challenged by his employers’ apparent disregard for the business of agriculture, Mr Williams headed off into the green sunset. The morning of a new phase of his life met him trudging through a paddy field somewhere in Nasarawa state.
After parting ways with the farm owner with whom he had initially struck a partnership deal, he maintained 45,000 hectares of the land and continued to develop it. Mr Williams says his farm now produces 8,000 metric tonnes of rice a year. He also plans to double this output next year.
Beyond the talk about farm business and strategy, the Kereksuk farm also has social responsibility initiative; they include training secondary school students in the production and economics of rice farming and contributing towards their training in higher institutions of learning; the second phase of this initiative involves training local Fulani women in the art of rice production.
Agriculture employs much of Nigeria’s workforce. It is also widely looked down upon. But Rotimi Williams has proven by his accomplishment that agriculture is not all soiled shorts and drudgery; a farm can indeed be something to take pride in.