A 21-YR-OLD LAUTECH UNDERGRADUATE IS QUITTING SCHOOL TO GO FARMING

A 21-year-old student of LAUTECH believes giving farming a shot is his own little contribution to taking Nigeria out of recession.

Hakeem Olabayonle, is an Animal Nutrition undergraduate of Ladoke Akintola University Ogbomoso, (LAUTECH). While learning how to make sure animals can stay healthy as a student, Hakeem has other interests, like politics. We learned these, and more in an interview with Lukmon Fasasi of Wazobia Global Times USA.
Here are a few things we found interesting from their conversation:

You hold a major stake in your school' student governance, why the shift?

"I'm currently my departmental representative at the Students Union Government level and I have been billed to become the next president in my department. All these are not needed now, our leaders have stained politics and this won't even take us out recession. I'm ready to leave everything for farming. We need more entrepreneurs now than politicians and farming entrepreneurs are necessary to revamp Nigeria and move it out of recession. Whether small or large scale, we need to start somewhere.

What inspired you?

"That's a great question (smiles) . Sometimes bad things occur to pave way for good one. My school was shut down about three months ago and basically that is my inspiration. I hate to stay idle.

Before Lautech shut down, we had a project on fish farming in my department and I was the team leader. Though, we are yet to be graded, it's one of my key inspiration".



That's lovely. So how do you get to start?

"As I have told you. It's better to start somewhere. Land is everywhere. I'm from Iseyin, Oyo State, where mass of land are currently being underused or totally abandoned. I love livestock farming and I have been breeding a salable species of snail for over 4 months and they are yielding already. I currently have hundreds of snails that are ready to hit market. Just last week, 30 chicks got delivered to my house and I hope to grow them against Christmas, in December "

Can you talk about the challenges you're facing?

"Talking about challenges, there are so many of them. The cost of feeding livestock and the availability of the feedmeal factories is a major challenge.

Feeding snail is to some extent pocket friendly, but to grow chicken is no joke. The availability of their meal is another problem. Unless more people invest in the livestock feedmeal, the problem may persisit.

If not farming, what would you have preferred?

"To move out of hardship, I would definitely prefer to do anything, other than stealing, scamming or other fraudulent things people do. If not farming, I would have just ventured into online businesses, like mini importation and exportation business, but the dwindling rate of dollars have crumbled that".

Any advice to young Nigerians?
"To youths out there, who has mind of starting something, Just do it. Just like NIKE will say it. And whenever you start, know where you are going, define your vision, put in your strength and stay committed then crave yourself a desired niche.