Firm engages Ekiti youths, women on use of technology for agric productivity

At the 2025 Oye Agro Allied Summit, Agrofeed Integrated Services, an agricultural firm with international links, spearheaded a bold move to reposition Oye-Ekiti and Ekiti State as a powerhouse in food production through youth and women empowerment. The summit, held in Oye Local Government Area of Ekiti State, focused on the use of technology to improve agricultural productivity and unlock global export potential.

The Chief Executive Officer of Agrofeed, Omotunde Komolafe, revealed that the firm—headquartered in Hungary—has entered into a strategic partnership with its host country to facilitate knowledge transfer, export infrastructure, and commercial-scale agriculture in Ekiti.

“We are not just thinking of producing food for local markets anymore,” Komolafe stated. “We are building the capacity for export and technological farming in Ekiti. This is how we make the state Nigeria’s food basket.”

A key highlight of the summit was the presentation of the Iroko Agro-biz Awards to individuals making significant contributions to agriculture and humanity. Awardee and agri-innovator Abiodun Abiola stressed the need for Nigerian farmers to abandon outdated methods and embrace modern, knowledge-based practices.

“The major barrier is ignorance. If we can adopt innovative methods and technologies, we’ll stop relying on other nations to feed us,” Abiola noted.

Also in attendance was the Oloye of Oye-Ekiti, Oba Oluwole Ademolaju, who lauded Agrofeed for situating the initiative in his community and called for collective support to drive the transformation of Ekiti’s agriculture sector.
Source- Tribune Online

Expert Review for Agri-Food Stakeholders
From Subsistence to Scale—Ekiti’s Model May Inspire Replication
The Oye Agro Allied Summit 2025 may appear regional on the surface, but its underlying significance speaks to a larger national opportunity. It reflects a growing trend: shifting Nigeria’s agriculture sector from subsistence to structured, tech-driven agribusiness.

Here’s what stakeholders need to take away:

1. From Manual to Mechanised to Digital
   The summit’s emphasis on technology represents more than mechanisation. It’s about smart agriculture: deploying drones, sensors, digital market access platforms, weather forecasting tools, and supply chain logistics to enhance output and market linkage. For Ekiti’s farmers, especially youth and women, this opens doors to:
   – Precision farming
   – Yield optimization
   – Market intelligence
   – Digital payment systems

   AgTech innovators and financial institutions must see this as an entry point for piloting inclusive digital tools in rural Nigeria.

2. Commercialisation and Export Readiness
   Komolafe’s mention of export potential, backed by a Hungary-Ekiti partnership, signals a maturation in the state’s agribusiness vision. But exporting requires:
   – Phytosanitary certification
   – Aggregation hubs
   – Cold chain logistics
   – Compliance with EU and international standards

   Stakeholders (government, private sector, NGOs) must help build the institutional and infrastructural frameworks that support smallholder integration into global value chains.

3. Knowledge Transfer Must Be Localised
   Awardee Abiola’s observation about ignorance underscores a key weakness in many agricultural interventions—failure to localise innovations. Knowledge transfer should be practical, continuous, and adapted to local realities. This summit should spark:
   – Establishment of Agritech Learning Hubs
   – Youth-led extension models
   – Use of local radio, WhatsApp, and community platforms to spread modern practices

4. Gender and Youth Inclusion as Economic Drivers
   The deliberate focus on women and youth isn’t symbolic—it’s strategic. These groups are not only demographically dominant in rural Nigeria but are also more open to innovation and less constrained by legacy farming mentalities. Empowering them means:
   – Providing access to credit
   – Developing entrepreneurship pipelines
   – Equipping them with the tools to become agripreneurs, not just farm workers

5. Traditional Leadership’s Role in Agricultural Development
   The involvement of the Oloye of Oye-Ekiti is not just ceremonial. Traditional institutions can anchor agri-development through:
   – Land access facilitation
   – Community mobilisation
   – Cultural acceptance of modern practices
   This model should be institutionalised, especially in states where land is communally controlled.

Conclusion
The Oye Agro Allied Summit offers a replicable model for transforming Nigeria’s agriculture from the grassroots: youth and women-centric, tech-enabled, export-oriented, and rooted in community ownership.
If backed by sustainable infrastructure and policy coherence, Ekiti could indeed evolve into the “food basket” of Nigeria—not in slogans, but in actual supply chain competitiveness.