Project Farmtitude of the Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative (CYFI) has inducted 30 young Farmers from Ikorodu into its Farming Business Boot camp in Lagos.
Speaking at the induction ceremony, Mr Dennis Akin, Project Lead, CYFI, said that Project FARMTITUDE is an initiative of the 2021 fellows of the U.S. Consulate General, Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative (CYFI), Lagos.
Akin said that the project aims to empower youths in the Ikorodu Local government area of Lagos with the knowledge, skills and resources required to start small scale crop production businesses while maximizing the value chain.
He said that the project provides selected youth with the knowledge, skills, tools, and network to start and build sustainable and scalable crop-based agricultural enterprises.
According to him, the participants will work in groups, have access to demonstration farms, be provided with start-up kits and be exposed to a range of partners within the agriculture value chain.
“At the end of this project, participants would be supported to develop business plans, register their businesses, equipped with basic business and farm kits, connected to the market, and seed fund would be provided to outstanding youth,” Dennis said.
Briana Olsen, Political/ Economic Officer, U.S. Consulate, and CYFI Mentor, said that the project aims to bring together Nigerian youths with exceptional vision, skills and experience to design and implement projects that would have a positive impact on Nigerian society.
Olsen said that the CYFI economic team in 2022 has designed a project that is helping communities build sustainable and scalable crop-based agricultural enterprises.
“We hope the program, project Farmtitude, can help you all to provide the knowledge, skills, tools and network to build agricultural enterprises and to scale these enterprises up as explained in more detail by my colleagues, the program leaders.
“We hope that participants will learn how to increase the value chain in the agricultural sector, make enterprises more profitable, and enable you all to better respond to market demands.
“The U.S. mission in Nigeria seeks to support agricultural initiatives like this one that provides opportunities for economic growth and improves food security in the country.
“We see the potential that project Farmtitude has to help communities in taking a first step to achieving these goals.
She expressed delight in the participants’ comportment and wished them well in the task ahead.
The three days intensive training took place at the American Corner in Lagos.
The training drew an array of experts from the corporate world to build the capacity of the farmers to be better-equipped Agripreneurs.