The Integrated Mechanized Farming and Agricultural Project of the SOS Children’s Village in Nigeria is a start-up social business, located in Owu-Ijebu, Ogun State, Nigeria. The project implementation took off in April 2018 with the cultivation of 10 Hectares of Farmland with the following crops – Cassava, Maize, and Plantain, followed by the construction of pens for Snails and poultry for birds.

The integrated farm is a self-sustaining social business designed to serve as a demonstration farm that provides capacity building for vulnerable young people (especially those participating in our Alternative Care and Family Strengthening Programmes) as well as other vulnerable youths from within and outside the immediate community. The project also serves to encourage young people to take up a career in agriculture and agro-allied businesses.

As part of efforts to intensify activities that empower young people to make them self-sustaining contributing members of their society, the Agric project has as one of its major goals, the training of young men and women in different areas of specialization in agriculture and agribusiness, encouraging them to take up careers in agriculture and agro-allied businesses.

One of the young lives impacted by the project is Oluwatobi Peter Ademosu.
Peter an indigene of Ijebu Isire community in Owu Ijebu, Ogun state was shortlisted In August 2020, to undergo one week of Agribusiness training at the SOS Children’s Villages farm in Owu Ijebu. Before Peter was shortlisted for the training, he had earned an Ordinary National Diploma in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Abraham Adesanya Polytechnic, Ogun State.

After this degree, Peter had no clue what his next plan of action was as he came from a low-income earning family with his mother a petty trader, and his father a peasant farmer. In his words “I was without hope of furthering my education or getting decent employment. When the training started, I made up my mind to focus intently on the training and learned various skills ranging from personal and career development to good agricultural practices for proficiency in the farming business.

Peter started cultivating some plots of land within his community, transferring the knowledge he was gaining from the training to the cultivation of Maize and Cassava, from which he got a good harvest. When the training was over, he volunteered to be a Farm Support for 2 weeks, as prequalifying criteria to become a farm trainee, under the mentorship of the Farm Manager. When the 2 weeks elapsed, he was assigned to the Crops and Livestock unit. Peter had learned financial practices for running a farm business and decided to put this knowledge to work. He says “With the stipends from the daily work at the Farm, I hired laborers to cultivate my farm, I also began saving some percentage of my stipend with the intention of furthering my education to a bachelor’s degree. When I had saved a decent sum, I applied for direct entry into a bachelor’s degree programme.

Before he resumed his degree, Peter got a scholarship from SOS Children’s Villages to study for a certificate program in Autonomous Wind Energy Production and Supply at Unikassel, Germany. He attended the virtual classes and furthered to obtain a Master’s Degree in Wind Energy Systems.

To support his scholarship program, the management of SOS Children’s Villages in Nigeria awarded a laptop and internet device to help Peter attend his classes online. Peter was grateful, in his words, “getting a new laptop with MIFI and data was beyond my expectation. I really appreciate the organization for this lifetime gesture.

Peter’s dreams are coming true as he has secured admission to study Electrical and Electrical Engineering at the bachelor’s level, at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Peter expresses his gratitude for the opportunities that the farm project has earned him saying “Thank you for this great opportunity that has transformed my life. I learned and I saved to continue learning”.