One of the prevailing adaptation trends with food insecurity and economic hardship, is people choosing to grow their own foods.

More people are now seeking to grow their own foods to meet their family food security and supplement household budget in this time of food inflation.

As this unfolds, cucumber, amongst other crops, becomes a crop of importance.

The fruit is incredibly easy to grow, and requires modest inputs and adapts to diverse conditions, grows rapidly and yields many fruits.

This thus makes the crop readily adoptable and a fast money spinner, which would huge earnings now, retailing at higher price than we had seen.

But just as it’s easy to grow the production also is delicate.

A fungus disease could seize all plant stands overnight and unfavorable conditions abort fruits decimating yield and snapping margins; this with other limiting factors making production fail.

Having in-depth knowledge thus is prerequisite to a successful cucumber venture.

This episodes embodies this with knowledge given from years of engaging in the sector by Ugo Mammah, informing what it takes to grow cucumber successfully and profitable.

Ugo shared his backstory of navigating agriculture landscape to crop production, which offers practical guide to would-be farmers on navigating career journey, clarity and purpose, and overcoming adversity.

The episode dealt with cucumber farming from two aspects of successfully growing cucumber and also selling the produces from production and at a good price enlightening on effective sales and marketing strategies.

Every year Nigeria imports milk worth about $1.5billion.

The nation's meat consumption is expected to grow 4x its current level to 1.3million tons by 2050.

A supply deficit and rising demand driven by growing population and middle class thus are creating opportunities in the livestock industry.

With this, the nation's livestock value is estimated at ₦30trn and poised to reach ₦50trn by 2040.

But the sector is not one without challenges and in fact the challenges in the business environment and of production method/scale ((inflation, farmer-herder clash, archaic animal rearing, poor investment and enabling environment, etc.) have ensured an enduring supply-demand gap.

As such, the livestock sector has not lived up to its potential of significant contribution to agricultural earnings than it is at present.

While Nigeria has a livestock count of over 155million one of the highest in Africa, the contribution of livestock to Agriculture GDP is barely 10% compared to other nations with lower livestock head but higher livestock-agriculture GDP.

It is this realisation of the sector's importance different policies and reforms have sought to transform the sector - for instance, element of the Agriculture Promotion Policy, the National Livestock Transformation Plan, and the recent Ministry of Livestock Development.

Indeed, these are important and had partly redirected/could revamp livestock production, but operating in the sector has to entail robust knowledge as we have come to see.

It is why this masterclass event on goat and sheep production was put together, to help for a viable venture and in unlocking capabilities of the discussed sector in meeting the nation's protein demand and generating significant earnings that raise agricultural contributions to GDP.

Opeyemi Abdullah Akande was the resource person. Akande holds a first degree in Animal Science from the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB) and a master's degree in similar field from the University of Ibadan. He is a Graduate and Registered Animal Scientist (G.A.S. and R.A.S.) with quality years of experience and has assisted people home and abroad setup operational and sustainable farms.

The masterclass commenced with dissecting the current landscape of livestock sector discussing recent issues associated with the sector for instance, the newly created ministry of livestock and development -whether it is good and capable of transforming present production system -and the issue of low productivity of methods of production in the system and how to enhance productivity.

It narrowed down to goat and sheep productions with thoughts on goal for engaging in the sector, followed by presentation on types breeds, identifying them, and selection of breed to goal of rearing.

The discourse also encompassed preparation for stocking, addressing housing and requirements, pen types, housing selection, feeding and pasture, preparation of pen and pasture planting for stocking, appropriate stocking procedures.

The masterclass enlightened on practices to keep pen clean and animal productive, diseases and illness of goats and sheep, how to spot them, their prevention and/cure.

It addressed questions from audience offering broader insights on ways of/practices with goat and sheep rearing, dispelling assumptions, correcting held untrue ideas, and guiding on prudent investment with ruminant farmers as a non-farmer.

Strategy to market and sell livestock produces were also touched, and with the class ending with discussion on the value of chains of the livestock sector with talks on animal skin for consumption and hides for leather.

The masterclass ended with advice in pursuing ambition in the sector in focus.

Agriculture already accounts for bulk of national GDP and employment for Africa and Nigeria. Technology with its efficient multiplier capability, could expand the potentials of the African agriculture and unlock immense possibilities. That is becoming the situation of the sector with significant agritech investment pouring in. (With latest reports) In 2022, the African agritech raised $636million. This was a 25% increase from 2021, the largest y-o-y increase after a 164% change from 2020 since a total $1.8billion attracted from 2013 and 2022. This opens up diverse array of agritech opportunities to build/utilise skills and carve a niche. The challenge, however, is that the ecosystem and terrain of startups can be complex to navigate. With experienced fellows the path becomes clearer and easier to navigate. Sharing insights on agritech and navigating agritech landscape is a pioneer of UAVs and drone technology for Agriculture in Nigeria and Africa, Femi Adekoya (The Flying Farmer). Femi is a UK Civil Aviation Authority certified drone pilot and also a drone data analyst. He heads flight operations at Integrated Aerial Precision, providing drone-powered solutions, training and consultancy to individuals and various organisations. Through his engagements with Drones in Agriculture, he has introduced over 5,000 agricultural technology enthusiasts to the realities and goodness of Drones in Agriculture.

The discourse in this episode encompasses the below themes: • Agritech definition: This is important to better understand agritech, as there are numerous definition for it which could be confusing. Also, knowing what agritech is would help in knowing what is not and what to follow. • The Agritech landscape: The status-quo. To continue in the present (2nd Industrial Revolution) or leapfrog to global level (4thIR). Funds and infrastructure availability. For instance, the total funds ($1.8bn) the African agritech has seen represents just about 2% of global agritech venture capital. • Career opportunities in agritech. • Choosing purpose –Impact vs Remuneration. • Practical insights/step to navigate career in agritech: especially in UAVs and drone tech field. • Smallholder farmers place in agritech. Changing meaning of the African smallholder farmers.