Oyeniran Michael

A Nigerian can spend ₦2 million on a laptop and everybody calls him a tech bro. Spend that same ₦2 million on tomato farming, and somebody will ask, “Hope say you no get another plan?” 😂 Bros, I shock. The tech guy studies data, tracks performance, manages risks and makes decisions. A serious farmer does the same thing. He studies weather, production costs, market prices and demand. One is called innovative. The other is told to find a better job. Yet, when food prices rise, everybody remembers agriculture. Farming doesn't need to look like tech for us to respect it. We need to start seeing it as a serious business that requires intelligence, technology, capital and strategy. No be joke. Why do we celebrate the people building the apps we use but look down on the people producing the food we eat? @MikeAgrow

For your last line, I Have a question? why does people opinion or attitude towards your job or source of income bother you? Does it affect your pipeline or does it add to the fertility and yield of crops or does it it create more markets?

What price is tomatoe in your area. Mine will be ready next week May God give us the fruit of our labour- is for us to get inspiration on timing. TGIF

Yesterday, I was having a conversation with a friend, and he told me a story about his tomato farm. According to him, he had about two plots of tomatoes, and the plants were flourishing. He claimed his tomatoes were doing better than those of other farmers around him. Then, one day, rain fell. By the next day, he noticed that all his tomato plants had started turning yellow. He became suspicious. According to him, the farmers around him had always been asking questions about how he was managing to make his tomatoes grow so well. So, he suspected that someone might be responsible for what happened to his farm. He told his father, and they went to the mountain to pray. He was also given prayer water to spray on the tomatoes. He said that after spraying the water, he noticed that the leaves gradually started turning green again. I listened to his story, but I tried to make him see things from another perspective. I told him that I understood that competition exists in farming, just like in every other business. When something happen to your farm, why should your first thought be that someone wants to bring him down? Why not ask questions? As for the yellowing of the tomatoes, I believe there are agricultural explanations worth investigating before concluding that someone is responsible. But this conversation left me with one question: Why does competition among farmers at the grassroots level sometimes become so deeply rooted in suspicion, fear, and what we Nigerians call BAD BELLE? Why can't we build a culture where one farmer's success becomes an opportunity for other farmers to learn, rather than something to be afraid of? After all, if we want agriculture to grow, shouldn't farmers be learning from one another instead of suspecting one another? What do you think? Why is bad belle so common in the way we approach competition, especially at the grassroots level?

Agriculture will take me to places.