This discussion is a must listen to as it is rare and in-depth on the topic of discourse and which was discussed from personally lived experiences.

Concepts and themes as circular economy, upcycling, recycling, food security and food sustainability, and Agtech were addressed, differentiated and the opportunities within their value chains discussed.

Kafilat talked about the market and potential for circular economy and home growing foods and the challenges hindering their adoption, exploitation and commercialisation.

The guest speaker especially differentiated between food security and food sustainability emphasizing the importance of the latter and the importance of home-growing food to achieving them.

She spoke on the role of technology for the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of growing foods from home and also upcycling and informed on factors hindering adoption and participation. She spoke on the strategies to eradicate these.

Kafilat Adedeji with years of experience at the intersection of the discussed fields detailed her experiences providing a guide for anyone seeking to play in the field and agriculture.

She narrated her story, spoke about about her challenges and how she navigated them, giving practical guide especially for young people with pursuing an idea, making it work, scalable, fundable and sustainable.

I undertook some secondary research in the 2nd week of January 2025 on agrocommodity in Nigeria and was to follow up with a field research in states across the south-west.

I rather went took to a neigbouring country, Republic of Benin based on research and also that a key informant (Animashaun Ibrahim, Manager & CEO, IBF Farms & Agrocommodity) on the agrocommodity I was to see in a south western Nigerian state was in Benin at that time.

Thus, I sat with him at the border town between Benin and Nigeria to discuss agrocommodity and the trading.

The discussion touched on his descent into commodity trading having being previously involved in primary production (farming).

He informed on his rationale to aggregate commodity in Benin Republic other than in Nigeria.

The conversation also encompassed commonly traded agricultural commodities, the opportunities and challenges.

He shared his thoughts on why people rather engage in commodity trading and more than other aspects of the value chains are why as a nation we export more raw commodities and import value-added products.

Animashaun ended by giving a one-minute brief of what we should be doing to transform our agriculture unlock its potential to feed the nation, boost trade and grow wealth and ensure equality.

This conversation held at Ajeja Dam & Farm Settlement, a farming initiative established at the outskirt of Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria to enable the sustainable cultivation of crops with access to reliable irrigation and enable water-based livelihood and economic activities for community and state prosperity.

We discussed the types of crops grown in the settlement, factors determining crops grown and their markets, and the peculiar challenges faced with production in the area and as regards the irrigation infrastructure and arrangement.

It was reached that the irrigation system has to be improved upon among many other challenges as finance, processing and preservation facilities, market access, availability and affordability of seeds and agrochemicals to unleash the productivity of the farmers and ensure a rewarding and sustainable livelihood that benefits both the farmers and the people.

We explored alternative financing from diaspora investors considering the issue of failure with return on investment for many factors and how to better structure for more mutually benefit partnership arrangement.

The farmers ended by informing on what they would like to see change in the sector and the government effect solutions to.