How are you?

It has been a very exciting week for us in Oyo State. We have received a lot of recognition from the international community for the work we have so far done in agriculture. I must say that when we started putting in the work over five years ago, we did not do it for the accolades. We did it because data, science and logic supported our decision to make agribusiness one of the core sectors through which we would move our people from poverty to prosperity.

In doing this, we have taken the path less travelled. We have followed a strategic pathway that is not mainstream. I have spoken about how instead of buying tractors that the government may not be able to maintain, we have collaborated with the private sector to provide counterpart funding for our smallholder farmers. We have tested and seen what worked and what didn’t so that when we do this again, we will score higher than the abysmal 5% success we just recorded.

For example, we will spend more time communicating the policy and ensuring that our farmers know about the project and how it will be run. We will also ensure that any bureaucratic bottlenecks that exist are eliminated.

We know that the only way to success is to embrace failure and learn from it. That is what has happened even with the Fasola project, which is getting us international acclaim. We ambitiously thought we could finish the project within one year. Well, we didn’t. But we have learnt so much from that pilot project, which we are implementing as we move to Eruwa and Ijaiye.