Cynthia Mosunmola Umoru, The suave farmer, betting big on agribusiness

If I thought I was excited about speaking to my lunch ‘date’ then my excitement was no way near hers when she said to me “I can’t wait for you to come over Kemi, I just brought some veggies, turkey and chicken from my farm so everything I will be making for lunch as we chat over the interview questions will be fresh from the farm” she said.

It is rare to find women so passionate about farming and for this I admire Cynthia Mosunmola Umoru, who is creating a step by step process encouraging the youth to embrace farming, admonishing the government to support the course and heralding the propagation of agriculture in schools so that the next generation will see agric as another means of wealth creation beneficial to them and the economy as a whole.

Cynthia is an agribusiness entrepreneur who is extremely passionate about food, farming and the community. Proudly calling herself a farmer, her dream is for Nigeria to attain national food security which can only be achieved through increased education of youths and women within the local communities. She is a zoology graduate, an alumnus of the Pan African University under the Enterprise Development Center (CEM), an Ashoka Fellow and Alum of the U.S Department of States International Visitors Leadership Programme and recently selected as one of the youths participating in the on-going confab.

Getting to her ‘Farmshoppe’, I saw live turkeys and chickens, fresh cat-fish climbing over themselves in a very big bowl, snails feeding on the vegetables given to them as meal; all ready to be bought.

Then I walked into her shop and saw fresh vegetables, grains, yam tubers, plantain, healthy snacks, various kinds of edible oil, stock fish, dried fish and more, all well packed and sealed.  Three huge freezers caught my attention, stocked with fish, turkey, chicken…name it… and I thought to myself “Whao! She is very industrious” …the aroma of well seasoned turkey filled the air and she walked out of her kitchen beaming with smiles as I noticed her apron well tied around her, branded with her nick name in italics on the far right of the apron ‘Pretty Miss Farmer’ and written in Arial black fonts, her shop name ‘Farmshoppe’.

“Welcome Kemi” she said after a warm embrace. We made our way to a table and in few minutes we were enjoying freshly squeezed juice with fried rice and turkey to go with it.

“In my life’s journey, there are specific tasks and assignments for this year and my primary task is to ensure that I fill each line with Gods approval as a ‘servant’, leader, daughter, sister, girlfriend, employer and a global citizen. As you know, agriculture is an integral part of my life and a core aspect of my assignment here on earth. I will be actively engaged with developing the agricultural sector in 2014 and beyond.”

There is one area we all as Nigerians need to look into for economic growth as a nation and it is in agriculture. Hear Cynthia’s view on this. “Agricultural businesses have huge, I mean such enormous potentials. Think for a moment with me Kemi about our population alone. Let me invite you into my world of thoughts on the value and role of agriculture on our economy very briefly. Over a 160million people to feed (staples, pulses, vegetables, fruits, grains, meat and dairy, fish and poultry products just to mention a few). An average Nigerian spends a N100 per meal, which equates to a daily N48billion food industry right there. We haven’t come to clothing, think of what will happen if we invest in reviving our cotton industry, re-building our textile industry, housing (I mean real estate not this fraud- ulent oppressive one we currently run.). Can you begin to imagine the number of jobs that a proper housing scheme would create? The number of service providers within that sphere?”

“Okay, let’s move to Education. When people are knowledgeable they can engage better and that would result in increased productivity right there. I am not an Economist so I may not be able to give you the real indices or financial matrix but as a farm girl, this is as real as the economy is to me especially if we look beyond oil…gosh! Think about that in economic terms, the number of people involved, the practitioners within the sector at the primary level farming and producing food, then as we move up the value chain, processors adding value to fresh produce converting to great export- able products, storage, transportation, logistics, distribution, marketing, promotions think Kemi…open your mind to the possibilities that I see everyday and work towards fixing. If a lot of our leaders don’t ponder about”

Cynthia further noted that agriculture needs to be treated with prestige and that there should be heavy investment in developing capacity within the farming communities. Encouraging female participation in agriculture, she opines “we do have a large and growing number of women engaged in various agricultural and agribusiness related enterprises. Women who are resilient and committed to what they do in spite of the odds against them which are enormous. What we may lack however is large number of structured agribusiness companies owned and fully managed by women. That is what needs to increase within the sector. More women need education and technical support to structure their ventures to become efficient and compete favourably with our peers in other sectors of the economy.” She quips.

Asked what changes she hopes to see in Nigeria and she reels it out “I will like to see increase in productivity, adoption of technology towards improving yields, development of skills for labour to be engaged within the sector. I look forward to increased job creation within the sector. I would love to see a growth in Mechanisation. I would be excited about actual not verbal injection of funds by all tiers of government towards the growth of agriculture. I would be excited about a further improvement with regards security and safety across sector and the Nation as a whole. I would like to see increased long -term financial investment within the sector as this would accelerate and impact greatly on economic growth.”

“Truthfully, so many things need to change within the sector alright but those changes cannot be carried out in isolation. There is a huge gap in the development of our country that needs to be fixed and that will in turn cause a rippling change effect across board. I would like to see an improvement in our infrastructure such as roads, transportation channels, power generation/ distribution, governance, security. I will like to see mediocrity and selfishness destroyed in Nigeria but above all, I would love to see a mindset change as this forms the foundation for all that we engage in.”

And Cynthia’s view on the ongoing confab? hear it “I am grateful for the honour and privilege but the representation of the youth in the confab is very low. We constitute a majority in the nation yet our representation here is small. We need to be heard, understood and be adequately included in the scheme of things. They say we are the future of tomorrow but our future begins now and we cannot be neglected or ignored.”

Giving her final admonition as the interview came to an end, Cynthia insists that “we can’t continue to pay lip service to fixing Nigerian issues. When we all have the right attitude, right behavioural pattern, then we would have responsible citizens and build a desirable Nation”

KEMI AJUMOBI