Farmhouse Show targets 65,250 young Nigerian farmers

A new agriculture-focused reality television show, tagged ‘The Farmhouse Show’, is about to make its debut in Nigeria.

The initiative is aimed at creating opportunity in the agricultural sector for young Nigerian graduates.

In the programme initiated by Adventium Global Development, selected unemployed and under-employed participants (house mates) from all over Nigeria will be camped in an integrated farm for 90 days.

The promoter of the initiative, Isaac Oghogho, explained that it would introduce the opportunities and potential in the agricultural sector to the young generation of Nigerians with the aim of gradually reducing the ageing population of farmers in the country.

He said the programme would deploy entertainment as a channel for interacting with the youths.

“The farmhouse is a youth empowerment project that is anchored on fixing a social deficiency in our country through job creation, empowerment and entrepreneurship in commercial agriculture,” he said during the unveiling of the project in Lagos on Thursday.

According to Oghogho, the programme tagged ‘Let’s make Nigeria green again’, will expose participants to modern agricultural techniques and technologies.

He said participants would learn about writing business plans and feasibility studies for agricultural investment.

According to him, the FHS will host celebrities in the entertainment industry while housemates will be made to handle entertainment tasks within the boundaries of Nigerian culture and decency.

He said each of the housemates would be assigned 20 unemployed youths as direct trainees.

Oghogho said, “At the end of the first year of the FHS, a total of 1,050 Nigerian youths will be involved in agriculture across the country. These additional 1,000 direct trainees will equally be assigned 20 indirect trainees each at the end of their second year (that is year three).

“Overall, at the end of year five, a total of 65,250 Nigerians will become entrepreneurs or employees in agriculture while cultivating approximately 50,000 hectares of land across a minimum of 10 states in Nigeria (5,000ha/state).”

Another promoter, Gloria Sambo, said the selection process would start from online registration, audition of participants across five cities and eventual camping of successful participants in the farmhouse.

She said the participants would be exposed to the various areas of agriculture including food and cash crops as well as animal husbandry and aquaculture.

“Qualified applicants will equally be exposed to the various government incentives and funding programmes for agriculture in Nigeria,” she added.

Adventium Global Development is working with state governments to provide a minimum of 1,000 hectares of land per annum over a five-year period or 5,000 hectares of land under a public private partnership arrangement for housemates to cultivate at the end of each season of the show, according Oghogho.