Women In Agriculture: Why I left engineering for agriculture - Bukola Fadairo

Bukola Fadairo, a mechanical engineering graduate from the Federal University of Technology, Minna, is a farmer in Oyo State, southwestern Nigeria.

She is the CEO of Emmanuel Farm where she produces cucumber, okra, watermelon, tomatoes, cassava, corn, palm kernel and golden melon.

She spoke to PREMIUM TIMES about her journey in agriculture and the challenges she faced.

PT: Can you tell us about your background in agriculture? How long have you been cultivating? Why did you get into farming despite studying mechanical engineering? There are many automobiles and other mechanical systems in the country.

Ms. Fadairo: I started at the end of 2018 after the end of my year of service. When I finished the service, I saved money on the service. I went home, met my cousin and we talked about how I could spend the money saved wisely.

Actually I have applied for a job but most are in Lagos and I am not ready for the stress of Lagos. He advised me to invest in garri's business, which I did. It was productive. I managed to buy and sell, but after about three cycles I got fed up and had to stop. He then advised me to start farming.

He introduced me to it and my first crops were cucumbers and okra, which is one of my favorites because I plant okra every year. But in November 2019 we decided to try the irrigation system because there is this stream behind the farm, and we introduced the system and it worked. We then planted okra in preparation for a good harvest in 2020 but the cattle came in and we got nothing in return, not even an okra. I replanted cucumbers and again the cattle came and nothing was harvested. It was pretty boring but I didn't stop.

So I keep planting cucumbers, okra and watermelons and they are yielding as well as the land is very fertile. My aunt who gave me the land used to use it for poultry farming. It is a one acre lot. After more than a year, I collected some money and bought 3 acres of land where I plant cassava. I also rented about 15 acres of land and planted maize and cassava simultaneously. So for now I am not looking for any job offers except they are ready to pay me more than 300,000 naira as a starter.

PT: Raising capital is hard, when you started how much capital was involved?

Mrs Fadairo: I plowed the farmland twice at 4500 naira each, bought a box of cucumbers for 1800, 2 bottles of okra seeds at 400 naira, found someone who plowed the ground for 5,000 naira and that was it. Now for plowing one spends between 12,000 and 15,000. A box of cucumbers now costs 3,000. Plowing the soil now goes from 15,000 N up to 35,000. Cultivating my cassava farm per acre costs nothing less than 35,000. Had to travel to get people to do it at 20,000.

PT: Being educated, you should have heard about climate change and the issue around it. How do you think this affected food production?

Ms. Fadairo: It really touched me. In 2020, there was not much rainfall, which affected many of my crops. I planted okra, cassava and none survived. I have a man like a father to me who took care of me. He planted about 23 acres of corn and it all died.

Also in 2022 the drought started suddenly and those with maize will have a problem, but for cassava you may be lucky except you operate an irrigation system on your maize plantations and cassava. This irrigation system also differs because there is an effect of oxygen on the crops. An irrigation system with a flowing stream or river as the water source will give more results than a system with a borehole source which is always better than one without...