As a way of celebrating all contestants and also give awards to youths, non-governmental organisations and industries practicing and promoting agriculture in the country, The Guardian newspapers is set to collaborate with International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Oyo State, in a Nollywood-inspired Agriculture reality show.
According to the producer, Kunle Agboola, who represents Corporate Farmers International Limited (CFIL), the concept of the show was developed by CFIL and IITA and will be shot within the facility of the institue in Ibadan.
Agboola explained that the 45 minutes, 62-day pre-recorded show is aimed at making farming attractive to Nigerian youths.
He said: “The show will be in the mode of Idol Africa, Fame Project, Gulder Search and others. Its pilot airing platforms would be Channels TV, STV, AIT, NTA and AfricaMagic. We have also signed an agreement with Blue Pie and NETFLIX, which have the largest paid subscription, streaming site for film and TV worldwide.
“The platform has about 75 million subscribers all over the world. Investors could recover about $95m (N32.5b) from the show, while the return on investments will be between 40 per cent to 150 per cent,” he explained.
The occasion had in attendance some Nollywood personalities like Yemi Blaq, Yemi Branch, Uche Ogbodo, Rykardo Agbor among other top actors in attendance.
Blaq recounted that in his youthful days, those involved in farming were those regarded as the never-do-wells, who had tried their hands on every other thing but failed.
According to him, “Farming used to be viewed as a profession for lesser beings. There is need for a change in mindset and with this reality show, we can have a complete re-engineering of the society with our youths learning to go back to the land to make money for themselves. They will also be producing food for Nigerians while at it. This is a laudable project.”
On his part, Mr. Jamie Rixton, a top official of Panalican Equipment, representative of Massey Ferguson, told the audience that his company is passionate about farming and helping the practitioners. He stated that he had travelled through the length and breadth of the country, including the violence-prone North Eastern Nigeria without any fear whatsoever.
Coordinator of the 50th NIIA anniversary and Director, Systems and Site Integration of the institute, Mr. Kwesi Ataka, said the time was ripe for the programme and for laudable agricultural projects that would involve the youths.
