Large scale vegetables grower in Delta shares interesting experience

Ebimoboere Eniyekpemi, 28, is a farmer in Delta State. A graduate of Plant Science and Biotechnology, she is the CEO of Afritropic Farming and Agro Services Ltd (AFAS).

In this 18th episode of our series, Ms Eniyekpemi shares her experience with PREMIUM TIMES.

PT: Your company name says you offer agro services; this means it is more than farming. So what are the services?

Ms Eniyekpemi: I own a company. It’s not just farming, but farming and agricultural services. I have two farms in Delta State and the agricultural services we render is hybrid vegetable seed which we import as we have been certified as a seed company by the National Seed Council.

We sell farm equipment, mechanised farming and machines and offer training to persons who have interest in agriculture.

Currently, I have a direct workforce of 42 persons and 113 indirect staff. The company’s name is Afritropic Farming and Agro Services Ltd (AFAS), farming is an aspect of what we do.

PT: How long have you been doing this?

MS Eniyekpemi: I started agriculture in 2014 in my state.

PT: Are you married?

Ms Eniyekpemi: No, I am not.

PT: What inspired you to go into agriculture?

Ms Eniyekpemi: I saw a need. While I was in school during my IT days, I discovered that all these plants like cucumbers, tomatoes and all of that were not that popular and people felt that people in the Niger Delta region can’t do the production as it has to come from the North before we can feed on tomatoes and onions.

I saw the need and you need a very short time to grow these vegetables. Like cucumbers take 37 to 45 days from planting to harvesting and this is a short period of time for these things to get ready and why are people going through hell to get produce? So that’s where it all started. There’s a need and we need to meet up that need.

One is to make the produce available and two to make the seeds also available. If the seeds cannot fit in then it cannot work. The benefit is the…