Post by Trade Coach on Aug 1, 2021 3:00:22 GMT 1
Kafilat Adedeji is a mushroom farmer who is passionate about cultivating marketing and proffering solutions with use of technology. She has attended training and fellowships like the Carrington Youth Initiative Fellowship and the German Institute of Business and technology. In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, she talks about her experience, passion for farming and more.
How would you describe your experience in the sector?
My experience has been a very interesting and challenging one. Imagine a female entrepreneur thriving in the Nigeria business environment especially in the Agriculture sector that is well dominated by men. I have had to survive the environment with a lot of resilience and a never giving up attitude. Combating one challenge to face another challenge and now at a point where that thing called resilience is now a part of my DNA having realised the entrepreneurship journey is all about creating solutions and solving challenges. Each day in the journey comes with its own unique learning process and fulfillment.
So, now I enjoy every bit of what it presents while striving to become a better version every day.
What attracted you to Mushrooms?
I got attracted to mushrooms because of the facts that it is very unique. Mushroom is neither plant nor animal! Requires some technicalities so barriers to entry are relatively higher. I had always wanted to build a sustainable business birthed from my academics professionalism as well as build a niche for myself. I hate unhealthy competition.
Secondly, it requires comparatively low capital and more importantly low space to set up profitably. I got attracted more due to the fact that I can start a farm from the comfort of my room without having to go through the rigours of tiling the land which I was used to (from my experience being born into a farming family and my many years of agricultural study and experience working for other farms).
Also, seeing mushrooms grow is more like fun and interesting. It has much potential to save the planet earth especially in this era of climate change effect impacting all spheres of life. Having got the opportunity to work after my NYSC in an integrated mushroom farm – the largest supplier of mushrooms to ShopRite, Lagos, Nigeria as of 2014, I discovered the potential of Mushrooms then. So, I had to develop a novel method of using the spent of mushroom substrates to combat the diseases of tomatoes in which my boss has spent a lot of money and efforts on to save his investment. I left the farm to develop my Masters Research in the University of Ibadan based on this challenge.
Concluding my Masters research was a very great turning point to helping me start my own business based on my expertise in the mushroom production industry.
What are the opportunities and challenges?
The opportunities are many. It is a unique business with a lot of value chains you can key into and quickly build a niche around and grow steadily with the right information and adopting the right technology.
It also requires relatively low startup capital compared to other agribusiness. It actually requires little or no farm land as you can easily grow profitably indoors. A standard room can grow up to 1.5tonnes of mushrooms on a yearly basis with the installation and adoption of the right technologies and gadgets. Barriers to entry are higher in Nigeria so you can be more focused on building your business than focusing on competition.
One other advantage is that the industry is very open to innovation, so you can easily develop innovative products from the mushroom production value and become the first to launch and determine what happens in the market or be in control of the market for the products.
There are challenges and this includes the fact that it is highly labour intensive so you will have to deal with and manage a lot of unskilled workers.
It requires one to be highly innovative and always willing to upgrade oneself.
You will also need highly sophisticated equipment to get high profit margins as well as a lot of marketing efforts to locals except you are only targeting the export market. In which case, you would require a lot of influence and certifications which can take years and a lot of money in business to acquire. High technical knowhow requirement is also critical.
What advice do you have for people who want to go into the sector?
They must acquire the right training first. Then study the different opportunities in the value chain and identify your strengths and weaknesses in relation to this. This will help you know the exact value chain you want to key into or begin with.
It is also important to research your market – this is the most important aspect, whatever niche you want to stay or area of the business you want to begin with must be backed with enough market data justification.
How did COVID-19 affect you?
The impact of COVID-19 was very much. Personally, it didn’t make us go to the farm. Even if you get your labourers to work for you, you have to be there to monitor it. The problem with unskilled labourers is that they cannot work on their own. So not being on the site to oversee them was a major challenge. The week we erected my container incubator on the farm was the same week that COVID-19 started with restrictions of not going out at all. All the labourers who came to do the work could not finish and we had to stop them. That eventually messed up the project and we wasted funds for that. We didn’t even know it would go on for months and even a year to get back to normal. We are recovering gradually. Mushroom production is usually done in a room structure, an enclosed setting and there was no way they could sit together, work and observe COVID protocols. The only thing I could do then was to do more of our paper works, seek for opportunities, grants and put technology in place to reduce workers as well as rotate the work on contract basis.
What are some of the other things that occupy your time?
I am multi- faceted. I am presently a PhD student at the University of Ibadan, doing paper work and gradually getting ready for field work. I work on how to reduce the disease in tomatoes. I also work on how to develop a smart tool to detect pathogens that affect crops on the field without going to the laboratory. I also do Program coding. So, I try to adopt and inculcate technology into my work. I upgrade my knowledge in these things because I am still learning. I also have another initiative where we teach students how to use Science and technology and adopt them for real life skills. Then my family is very important too.
What was the driving force at the beginning?
Basically, passion was the drive for me. I remembered when I got married the gifts I requested from my husband was a Ted farm. I am sharing this this just to know how passionate I am about farming. That is what I have been used to, what I studied for my first degree and I was born into a farming family. This is what my grandma, grandpa, mum and dad did. We have a family farm and personally I am passionate about it. I went to study Agronomy and I graduated with a first class. All my job experience has been on the farm for Internship, Service year. Even my first job as Assistant farm manager, all my consultancy job was in the farming space. My next passion was to get a farm of my own. I had been helping others to set up theirs. I am very resilient, consistent and passionate about it. I didn’t give up and whatever comes my way I invested all. So, I would say passion is more of my driving force. Later when I had challenges, I began to rethink the process. I began to see farming as a business and it was more than passion. So, I kept telling people you need more than passion to succeed. I started acquiring business training, using technology and attended a lot of business incubation trainings. I am also naturally a technology freak, I love anything tech.
One challenge was that I had to relocate to Lagos because of marriage. So, I had to start all over again. I couldn’t bring my farmland to Lagos. It was a rented apartment and couldn’t get space. I thought the best thing to do was to acquire my own land, rather than thinking of renting an apartment close to me. I opted for buy, put structures in place which I thought was more sustainable. However I had problems battling with omo-onile( land grabbers).
You are a microbiologist, how this influenced what you do?
Yes, that actually helped my transitioning was during my Master’s. I was more of an Agronomists. I graduated with a first class and afterwards I have been practicing on farms. I had to transit into Microbiology specifically plant pathology, the microbiology option, a function of fungi.
I had to transition into this during my first work experience as Assistant Farm Manager of an integrated farm. They deal in Mushrooms and every other exotic vegetables, herbs and livestock. That was where I got hands on experience on Mushrooms. I had to oversee the production process, selling, packaging and supply. We were one of the largest suppliers of Shoprite then. It was a fully integrated farm; they had Greenhouse farms for tomatoes and others. We had a problem on the farm and I love to fix problems. We went through a lot of process but the plant still came up with this disease. So, I got challenged, we consulted different experts from different industries, universities to recommend solutions but none of them brought solutions. We even tried chemicals despite the fact that the farm is an organic farm modeled after Songhai farms in Benin Republic. The chemicals didn’t work too. So, I took this as a challenge and I started seeing different options. One day I saw how we can use Mushroom compose to cure the disease of the plants. After producing the Mushrooms, the waste is no longer useful to us and I started working on how to manage the waste for the tomatoes disease. So, I developed my Master’s research to study this. I also had to spend 6 months extra to learn the art of Microbiologist because I didn’t have the background of how to culture organism, look for microbes and how to get beneficial microbes.
Source: thenationonlineng.net/kafilat-adedeji-my-life-as-a-mushroom-farmer/
How would you describe your experience in the sector?
My experience has been a very interesting and challenging one. Imagine a female entrepreneur thriving in the Nigeria business environment especially in the Agriculture sector that is well dominated by men. I have had to survive the environment with a lot of resilience and a never giving up attitude. Combating one challenge to face another challenge and now at a point where that thing called resilience is now a part of my DNA having realised the entrepreneurship journey is all about creating solutions and solving challenges. Each day in the journey comes with its own unique learning process and fulfillment.
So, now I enjoy every bit of what it presents while striving to become a better version every day.
What attracted you to Mushrooms?
I got attracted to mushrooms because of the facts that it is very unique. Mushroom is neither plant nor animal! Requires some technicalities so barriers to entry are relatively higher. I had always wanted to build a sustainable business birthed from my academics professionalism as well as build a niche for myself. I hate unhealthy competition.
Secondly, it requires comparatively low capital and more importantly low space to set up profitably. I got attracted more due to the fact that I can start a farm from the comfort of my room without having to go through the rigours of tiling the land which I was used to (from my experience being born into a farming family and my many years of agricultural study and experience working for other farms).
Also, seeing mushrooms grow is more like fun and interesting. It has much potential to save the planet earth especially in this era of climate change effect impacting all spheres of life. Having got the opportunity to work after my NYSC in an integrated mushroom farm – the largest supplier of mushrooms to ShopRite, Lagos, Nigeria as of 2014, I discovered the potential of Mushrooms then. So, I had to develop a novel method of using the spent of mushroom substrates to combat the diseases of tomatoes in which my boss has spent a lot of money and efforts on to save his investment. I left the farm to develop my Masters Research in the University of Ibadan based on this challenge.
Concluding my Masters research was a very great turning point to helping me start my own business based on my expertise in the mushroom production industry.
What are the opportunities and challenges?
The opportunities are many. It is a unique business with a lot of value chains you can key into and quickly build a niche around and grow steadily with the right information and adopting the right technology.
It also requires relatively low startup capital compared to other agribusiness. It actually requires little or no farm land as you can easily grow profitably indoors. A standard room can grow up to 1.5tonnes of mushrooms on a yearly basis with the installation and adoption of the right technologies and gadgets. Barriers to entry are higher in Nigeria so you can be more focused on building your business than focusing on competition.
One other advantage is that the industry is very open to innovation, so you can easily develop innovative products from the mushroom production value and become the first to launch and determine what happens in the market or be in control of the market for the products.
There are challenges and this includes the fact that it is highly labour intensive so you will have to deal with and manage a lot of unskilled workers.
It requires one to be highly innovative and always willing to upgrade oneself.
You will also need highly sophisticated equipment to get high profit margins as well as a lot of marketing efforts to locals except you are only targeting the export market. In which case, you would require a lot of influence and certifications which can take years and a lot of money in business to acquire. High technical knowhow requirement is also critical.
What advice do you have for people who want to go into the sector?
They must acquire the right training first. Then study the different opportunities in the value chain and identify your strengths and weaknesses in relation to this. This will help you know the exact value chain you want to key into or begin with.
It is also important to research your market – this is the most important aspect, whatever niche you want to stay or area of the business you want to begin with must be backed with enough market data justification.
How did COVID-19 affect you?
The impact of COVID-19 was very much. Personally, it didn’t make us go to the farm. Even if you get your labourers to work for you, you have to be there to monitor it. The problem with unskilled labourers is that they cannot work on their own. So not being on the site to oversee them was a major challenge. The week we erected my container incubator on the farm was the same week that COVID-19 started with restrictions of not going out at all. All the labourers who came to do the work could not finish and we had to stop them. That eventually messed up the project and we wasted funds for that. We didn’t even know it would go on for months and even a year to get back to normal. We are recovering gradually. Mushroom production is usually done in a room structure, an enclosed setting and there was no way they could sit together, work and observe COVID protocols. The only thing I could do then was to do more of our paper works, seek for opportunities, grants and put technology in place to reduce workers as well as rotate the work on contract basis.
What are some of the other things that occupy your time?
I am multi- faceted. I am presently a PhD student at the University of Ibadan, doing paper work and gradually getting ready for field work. I work on how to reduce the disease in tomatoes. I also work on how to develop a smart tool to detect pathogens that affect crops on the field without going to the laboratory. I also do Program coding. So, I try to adopt and inculcate technology into my work. I upgrade my knowledge in these things because I am still learning. I also have another initiative where we teach students how to use Science and technology and adopt them for real life skills. Then my family is very important too.
What was the driving force at the beginning?
Basically, passion was the drive for me. I remembered when I got married the gifts I requested from my husband was a Ted farm. I am sharing this this just to know how passionate I am about farming. That is what I have been used to, what I studied for my first degree and I was born into a farming family. This is what my grandma, grandpa, mum and dad did. We have a family farm and personally I am passionate about it. I went to study Agronomy and I graduated with a first class. All my job experience has been on the farm for Internship, Service year. Even my first job as Assistant farm manager, all my consultancy job was in the farming space. My next passion was to get a farm of my own. I had been helping others to set up theirs. I am very resilient, consistent and passionate about it. I didn’t give up and whatever comes my way I invested all. So, I would say passion is more of my driving force. Later when I had challenges, I began to rethink the process. I began to see farming as a business and it was more than passion. So, I kept telling people you need more than passion to succeed. I started acquiring business training, using technology and attended a lot of business incubation trainings. I am also naturally a technology freak, I love anything tech.
One challenge was that I had to relocate to Lagos because of marriage. So, I had to start all over again. I couldn’t bring my farmland to Lagos. It was a rented apartment and couldn’t get space. I thought the best thing to do was to acquire my own land, rather than thinking of renting an apartment close to me. I opted for buy, put structures in place which I thought was more sustainable. However I had problems battling with omo-onile( land grabbers).
You are a microbiologist, how this influenced what you do?
Yes, that actually helped my transitioning was during my Master’s. I was more of an Agronomists. I graduated with a first class and afterwards I have been practicing on farms. I had to transit into Microbiology specifically plant pathology, the microbiology option, a function of fungi.
I had to transition into this during my first work experience as Assistant Farm Manager of an integrated farm. They deal in Mushrooms and every other exotic vegetables, herbs and livestock. That was where I got hands on experience on Mushrooms. I had to oversee the production process, selling, packaging and supply. We were one of the largest suppliers of Shoprite then. It was a fully integrated farm; they had Greenhouse farms for tomatoes and others. We had a problem on the farm and I love to fix problems. We went through a lot of process but the plant still came up with this disease. So, I got challenged, we consulted different experts from different industries, universities to recommend solutions but none of them brought solutions. We even tried chemicals despite the fact that the farm is an organic farm modeled after Songhai farms in Benin Republic. The chemicals didn’t work too. So, I took this as a challenge and I started seeing different options. One day I saw how we can use Mushroom compose to cure the disease of the plants. After producing the Mushrooms, the waste is no longer useful to us and I started working on how to manage the waste for the tomatoes disease. So, I developed my Master’s research to study this. I also had to spend 6 months extra to learn the art of Microbiologist because I didn’t have the background of how to culture organism, look for microbes and how to get beneficial microbes.
Source: thenationonlineng.net/kafilat-adedeji-my-life-as-a-mushroom-farmer/