The founder of Nigerian Women in Agricultural Research for Development (NIWARD),  Prof. Stella Williams, who is also a retired professor of agricultural economics from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, has stated that young people now have a voice in the line of where agriculture should go and is going.

She made this known  in a chat bordering on NIWARD and agriculture in Nigeria with CEOAFRICA; where she disclosed that the young people using their ICT, can now also expand on the business of Agriculture instead of waiting for the government to be their mouthpiece.

According to her, NIWARD’s fellows, mentors and mentees have an impact on agricultural transformation agenda in Nigeria, which was the reason for the creation of the organisation in May 2013 at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), following the dissolution of the African Women in Agricultural Research for Development (AWARD)based in Nairobi Kenya.

Professor Williams said, “the goals of NIWARD just like the goals of AWARD is to reduce poverty and reduce hunger, and so, these African female scientists, using outcomes from their researches, are enabling and empowering rural farming communities especially the rural women farmers to adopt positive outcomes from these agricultural researches that would enable them to have better value chain addition to their productivity, processing as well as marketing.

“And if these women who are now entrepreneurs are able to have enough economic growth, that is how hunger will be reduced and poverty will be reduced especially in the rural farming communities in Nigeria”.

She added that the NIWARD is contributing to nation building in terms of economic empowerment, and the SDG goals of education, reduced poverty, improved nutrition, improved health and gender equality/parity in Nigeria.

Using IAR&T as an example, the professor explained that NIWARD has fellows, mentors and mentees in the institute, saying that the combined productivity of these fellows, mentors and mentees in the south west is empowering agricultural transformation and this applies to all the geopolitical zones in the country.

Describing the changes in Agriculture over the years, she said that the agriculture of yesterday was not enabling because of “its small-holder community with back breaking technology”

She however added that “the current 21st century system has improved because of new gears, new technologies, new innovation and better modernisation in terms of Agriculture”.

 Prof. Williams said, “And now our young people are now agricultural entrepreneurs who through YouWiN have been able to get further training and are now in various regions contributing to modernised agricultural system including modernised information technology to ensure that farmers don’t even have to travel before they can sell their products.

“With the modernisation and the mobilisation process that is going on in terms of entrepreneurship Nigeria is getting to the point that they are not raw materials suppliers they are now moving horizontally as well as vertically so that it goes from production to processing to packaging to marketing”.

She thereafter advised that other countries of the world should not short-change Africa and think that Africa will go back into servitude; instead they should watch the continent climb higher.

She reiterated that agricultural is now a business opportunity and should be seen as one, saying that young people don’t have to go abroad to be rich, they can stay at home with their education, their talents and dreams to get the quality of life they want.