hi my name is marina kuzmank and today we have our next conversation at affluencers our project act for answers is about inspirational women in sustainable agriculture it's my big pleasure to welcome today a promising lady who is already almost finished her phd in plant pathology and also she's a founder of the startup called you farming in nigeria she is inspiring more nigerians to join sustainable agriculture this is my pleasure to welcome kathie hi catholic hello thank you for having me i really appreciate it thank you so much i feel like you have so many projects in your portfolio as a influencer and as a person who is doing agriculture technologies business so uh how did you start everything this is going to be a very long conversation but i'll try to cut it as short as possible and so i'll be brief as much as possible i really i really really hope and i'm sorry to say that okay so basically it's it's sprang from the agriculture by agricultural background is from my academics like um right from my degrees 2005 to 2010 undergraduates everything is like agricultural i studied agronomy in a graduate level i had a graduate with a first class in agronomy so being a first grad first class graduate is actually the first thing that gave me that challenge to work in the agricultural sector now um the educational background in my country in my university is more of um theoretical based on practical base but i got a first class so it's a challenge on my part because i have to be able to defend my certificate and you know agriculture it has to be practical so i i wouldn't want to give any excuse that my school only teach us um theory they didn't teach us practica so um i'll start giving that excuse for my failure in the feed no no no no so i have to go extra my to go garner the practical skills so i should i should i'll be able to defend my certificate and i was the first jet of practicing agriculture for me coincidentally i was born into a farming family right from my parents my grandparents like we own a family farm it has always been what did they grow as a farmers we grow crops basically from plantains vegetables we make bets ourselves we eat we grow the vegetables we eat for our family sustainably and we sell the remaining ones that's basically it's like our vegetables our planting that often we actually have a fish map fish farm ethan fish pond that is more of a business side that's aquaculture we do more of that for business sake but for the vegetables for the plantain and all of that that is basically for family consumption you only have to sell the excess so basically that's what we are passionate about doing that not just um maybe for business or anything it's just because we are born into that family my parents in there is from their grandparents and it has become a culture so basically so um i would now say like um i now i was coincidentally i was fortunate to go study agriculture again in the university though it was actually not my part of my plan i only made the resolution in my second year that uh i'm not going to cross over to medicine i wanted to study medicine that i'm going to stay here in agronomy and become the best student but i know that i actually merited crossing over to medicine i i had all the cgpa i had all the greats for me to cross over to that department and everything is still working against me not to be in medicine so i have to say fine maybe perhaps this is what just god wants me to do so if i'm not going to for too many because of the opportunity that i'm not granted then i should be able to bring out the best in agronomy and that was just a resolution for me and eventually i gathered it with the first class so um having graduated with the first class the challenge for me now is to be able to defend my certificates by being practically oriented and luckily for me from a background of farming as a family i had my i.t industrial training in um and cultural projects farms but government farms around so i was able to garner practical skills eventually my service year because in nigeria when you have a graduate after you graduate your first work experience you'll be posted to a another state to have an industrial experience they call it service national youth service so you have to you have one year to do that in nigeria so luckily for me most people they are usually posted to schools to go and teach but luckily for me i was posted into an irrigation-based basic project baccalaureate irrigation investing project which is a rice farm by the federal government of nigeria in zamfara state it's actually a big project they use irrigation to farm rice so i was being posted to uh be the assistant intake officer in the units for jew rice rice and farmers so that's another bunch of experience for me and i have one good year to be in that um organization so that was my first big experience in the agricultural sector we had to work with local farmers how to supply them improved seeds i have to supply them a good technology to fund their rights under my spa advisor and all of that so at that point i had to take up my own personal projects too within that um irrigation basic organization i had my own zero points two hectares farmland where i also cultivate my own rights as my own private business projects while also monitoring other farmers so that that was actually my first experience so i had to leave after my one year service so which made me not to be able to conclude the whole project and my presence so i feel like sorry for interrupting was it challenging for you after the university just start the real life the real practice and grow rice do you remember like first impression first challenge what it what it was the first challenge was when i had to leave and i had to say people manage my rice farm for me you know i had invested everything on the only thing left is the fact that they have to have vest my rights for me and there's a language there was a there was a language barrier we do not speak the same language the french part is different states in my country so managing the workers was easy for me why i was there because i use my supervisors but now that i'm not there anymore that was a hand so i couldn't get anything from my rice farm that was the first challenge i had so i actually thought because i was farming in absence i was not there to monitor and number two the language barrier number three the basic problem again which is number three is me being a female because the men do not want to respect me they don't want to listen to me and so even if i had to and talk to tomorrow i unhand that you have to provide me with my harvest what i i paid you they wouldn't want to listen to me because i'm a female so that that i would say that was actually the major challenge of the three challenges i faced in seeing the breakthrough of that project okay going forward after my service year six months my first and paid employment was actually as an assistant farm manager in a private farm and the farm is the largest supply of mushrooms to shop right in nigeria i don't know if you know shoprite shop rights is a very big mall in nigeria and south africa so um this farm that i work with as a system farm manager supply mushroom to them and they're actually the largest supply of mushrooms so i work in this farm um for six months actually as the assistant farm manager so that that was actually another plus for my agricultural experience which was actually a good one for me because in that farm they actually want to practice organic farming something like a replica what we have in sungai um i don't know whether you know some guy fan in the near republic the sunlight song farm in the new republic so that was the model the farm wants to work on practical organic farming oh so uh basically that was where i had my organic farm experience and that was actually what keep opening my eyes to the agricultural sector practicing the feed because i keep gathering experience and i wouldn't just want this experience to waste i see cafe attend regarding your experience on that assistant position so your boss was male or female you were supporting him as assistant who it was it was male or female my boss was a male man i have two males as boss this this this was another hell of problem for me in a farm of three learned workers issue you you can't imagine that in a farm a big farm of three skilled workers um graduates and um seven unskilled workers i was the only female that was another hell that was another hell for me again i was this i mean i'm this kind of person that is very transparent and open for everything you spend on the farm i have to take a chance for it like i'm very very accountable for everything and that became that made me became a threat to my boss i would say that you know that like why did you have to spend this you have to be accountable i had to write everything down you understand maybe because i'm a female or maybe because of my personality it's made me became a threat to my boss and i would say this was actually a problem though i was um i was favored by my employer because of that attitude but my immediate boss i had to report to because i'm the assistant farm manager my farm manager took this as a threat you get the point so that that actually did not even made me to stay so much in that farm because actually i was working i was i was i was i had any money and i was furthering my education as my masters but i wasn't deriving that pleasure because the fact that my farm manager is not happy with me that's my father my employer is happy with me so i understand i understand interpersonal relationship it's always not so easy uh and what is the way between when you are the uh managing assistant and then you have your farming uh how did you get the idea to go to your own i understand why probably because i am on the same board but how how did you get this power inside of you just to start your farming it's it's just um resonates to my personality again i i would say i'm very stubborn like i'm this goal-getter like stubborn in the good way i want this thing until i i get it i have to get it except i get i see a challenge on the way and that says you are not going to see this at all cause and i have to i have to go back but i have to do everything in my power to get it so basically for me um starting my own organization is for me to be fulfilled like i really want to be in control i really want to be able to create my own world like people say this thing is not possible i want to break that barrier i want to disrupt the system i want to do things that people say is not possible everybody has been telling me you're a female you can do this my husband tell me my father tell me you can't do this you're a female i just want to do it i want to see what would happen when i do it yes you get a point that's actually that's actually what made me but starting organization for maybe because of my openness my personal attitude the good that i've also done i would say that in the organization i've worked with it's helped me to get like mind like mine to be willing to work with me in fact basically most of my employee employees i mean those people that work with me they are volunteers i pay them no money and they are willing to happy to work with me so like it makes me it makes many people willing to work work with me for free without me paying them a dime i hope you get the point so that has been the energy for me even when i have every um reason to say i'm quitting this thing this thing is very challenging i'm not doing anymore those people that surrounds me give me the go ahead to keep pushing to keep pushing until recently i would say this year i started having structures and all of that because i i'm opportunity to be trained by different business um um incubating incubation and programs like um the um autumn school chemist of sustainable entrepreneurship the assa autumn school um like the netherlands uh incubation program orange corners nigeria so these are international organizations that have given me good training that is making me to structure my organization to meet up with a global um global world like it to an international level which is actually my vision for my organization tell us about your vision vision which you want to to raise in front of people who come to your farm so what is your vision my vision is to see people farm on their limited urban space and hand a descent living many people see farmers as bad people in the society as people that are unskilled as dirty people or a death job i want people to be able to farm and earn a decent living like irrespective of whatever resources they have at their disposal that is my vision so the world becomes a better place for everyone like the farming job that they take as a walk they should be able to earn a decent living and be able to uh people should be able to respect them for that farmers take their good place in the society not to be seen as dirty people in the society or people that are unlearned or unskilled no i want people to be able to farm on their limited urban space with little or no resources free of chemicals and any addison's living doing that particular thing they you're doing that is my vision um and how many uh people do you have in your team who are supporting you is doing all projects in your your families right now we have um volunteers up to seven and we have a paid employee um for now one permanent then i have a two contract staff excluding myself and my partner and returning to the point when you started your farm what was the challenge for starting because yes you were still in male dominated industry you are still among males but what other challenges did you face the challenges number one is no i actually did not have any business knowledge i was only coming into agricultural place based on my passion based on my experience working in france based on my expertise as an agronomist as a masters in plant biology as a phd student i was just going there for passion sake i didn't have i have zero knowledge for business so that was one major challenge for me because i teach people i say i'm doing business and it's not sustainable because they just take the idea and go go out and launch it as a business and i am there not any anything for what i do because i'm just doing it for passion sake so i would say that was the greatest challenge the second challenge for me is the fact that i'm as a female i have to um i tend to family meet i had to get married getting married for me i changed location i could not carry my land i could not carry my farm land i had to start all over again building a farm in an open space in a city where there is no farmland so like i'm doing what is impracticable and i could not stop because i've grown to some extent i would not say i'm stopping farming totally i'd give the expertise i built the attraction but i just changed location because i relocated i got married so it's like i'm starting all over again so that was another major challenge for me and i would say number three challenge is the fact that i'm a female i'll keep saying this i'm a female i have this weakness of my my competitors which are guys they say they want five million or ten million there are they go for it i will be timid as a female say even if i see five thousand area okay and my competitors know that it's going to be 10 million and i'll make this project i because of my female and passiveness i would say i can do with 5 000 era i can manage 5 000 and eventually the money would not be enough i would not build anything for me so it made me have financial problems and not be able to um build to sustainably not think in the end why starting or because of my limitation i hope i'm able to answer that question and where did you get funding did you apply for any kind of scholarship or any uh grants or how do you advise other women in in similar circumstances to get funding to start their business okay so for me i at the point i did not even i keep applying for scholarships but i didn't get scholarship opportunity but i had to be strategized because um youth army is basically on two categories um product level and service level the products we sell organic farm inputs and the service we we teach people and in terms of courses and sell farming courses to them they come to train on our farms and all of that so the idea is for me to build the farm first so that people can come to my farm and say this is a farm that is working then we want to come and learn but that didn't work for me because i don't have the funding to build a farm of that taste i actually wanted that people would be attracted to so i had to re-strategize and i used technology i leveraged on technology so i started from my strengths which is the knowledge and the skills that i've acquired in schools and all the farms that i had worked for so i started training first so i did backward integration so started training first and i use technology so i can i train people basically on whatsapp on telegram without having a physical farm but using the family knowledge the expertise i've learned from different farms that i've worked for you understand so i was able to tell them to teach them for me and i was able to gather um um funding from them because i charged a little for teaching in that platform i created so it is now that money that i garnered from teaching that are now used to build the farm the use of the backward integration so when i now was able to build the f and the farm to gain traction last year yesterday applying for funding do you understand and presently now we've been able to get um um if a five thousand dollars you know and also a question about you told the lack of knowledge how to do business where did you get this knowledge to start so i started applying for business incubation program and because i don't have money to fund myself to avad business school i was looking for business occupation program that were free that that were on scholarship so i started applying for that even if i did not get grants i got free business incubation program that i was able to enroll to learn free of charge and top-notch for that matter so i've been able to train with some three business schools um last year was autumn school of sustainable entrepreneurship which was in ghana that was my german german african exchange program that was a very good one fact it's one of is the best of all the ones that i had one with microsoft i had another one with um a celery trap which is the future of word africa okay so basically i'm on my church one now which is which which is within nidaland so this this this one i have now is both um um training business training at the same time with funding attached to it unlike the ones i've been doing before which is just strictly business training so right now i'm doing the one that has business training alongside funding which makes it a double win for me but while starting out i got business um trainings and that was what had made me to garner the right this experience cafe and also um i have a question where did you get all this energy and inspiration not to give up just move ahead how do you inspire yourself or maybe someone else is inspiring you the restless was maybe i would say restlessness has been built into my dna i will say that personally about day one it has always been people my daddy not giving up on me talking to me if i make any mistake he doesn't allow me to just go away with any mistake he made me realize that kaffir latte have made a mistake and like every now and then they keep talking to me and because i want to become a good person i see that talking to me that um um um scolding me so to say as something that made me improve upon myself so i had to seek anyhow way for me to be able to um kind of i know what i wanted to do was good but my father would not understand so he was scared about it and i don't want to offend my father so i was looking for everywhere every strategy to become a better person to him so that i'll be convinced and say that i'm actually doing the right thing that's one thing now the second thing is i'm a muslim a muslim that covers my body i mean that covers my that's what that's another problem to me in the society decides to see me as somebody that because i'm covering my head i don't have anything to offer the society they look down upon me you know that's by the fact that i'm a learned person i've traveled you understand they just did not see me i'm not convinced because of my appearance so i want to change that perspective that i want to change that um wrong perspective that people look at me in so i already have that that thing inside me that i want whatever you think that you're seeing me that i'm not doing right i want to be able to convince you that i'm a good person i want to be able to convince you that i want you to say the right person of me so that has been the way i've been i've been growing so i had it i i i just adopted that same strategy for my business do you understand so it's like restless and building their resilience has become part of my life and that's just what has made me to what i what i am today thank you thank you cafe for your openness and and transparency of definitely it's it's not only about you it's very personal things which you said thank you and also i know that you are quite quite active person at linkedin but also maybe you have other people or companies to follow my number one is wajani jain university i love that their research is top notch and i've always aspired to study in the university for my research like it's what i look forward in the need island that's my number one because i just have this personal passion for research like i'm just that research person i was into business because i want to be able to sustain my research and i see the university as the one that has seen all over the world that are doing and the second company that i i like to follow and copy that into sustainable organic agriculture sustainable organic culture they are doing more than i am doing that i can learn from i can leverage on their technology i can leverage on what they are doing right i can use to build my own small company and become victor in the nearest future so those are the those are the kind of um companies i i like to follow okay definitely thank you for your time today that you spend this evening friday evening with us and spoke about about your life uh if i will get any information about free business accelerator i will share it with you because i understand that for you it's very important to get this knowledge and to get some network of connections who will help you so thank you so much kafilat for today and thank you i i wish good luck i i sincerely wish you good luck with your farm and we will stay in touch thank you very much i really appreciate the opportunity thank you for what you're doing
2021-02-07