Opportunities for Youth in Drone Technology with Femi Adekoya – Let’s Talk Agriculture.

Whenever we search the internet, we find questions about the opportunities in the agricultural sector. Opportunities present themselves in different ways to us but sometimes we fail to see them and our growth process in life, and business move at a slow pace, making us doubt our capabilities.

The agricultural sector is broad and it provides diverse opportunities for those who are willing and see it as a business.

In this podcast episode, we delve into the opportunities available for you in drone technology. Our podcast host, Sharon Idahosa sat with Femi Adekoya, an exceptional youth who is making waves in the use of drone technology for the benefit of the agricultural sector.

Transcription

[00:00:00] Sharon Idahosa: Beautiful, beautiful people. Beautiful

[00:00:01] Intro: indeed. That is one of my biggest pleasure is always when I went to my own farm. So I think it’s important to first understand what a healthy relationship you feel is for us to know what it’s not. Not trying. I can relate. I can relate selfish. So you could be your own farmer priest.

Who knows. Trust. Trust me when I tell you there will always be challenges, there will always be risks. Seems like we have a lot in common. Welcome to the Lets Talk Agriculture, and of course it’s your favourite girl.

[00:00:35] Sharon Idahosa: Hello, beautiful people. Welcome to the Last Talk Agriculture podcast show. Where we connect you with the happiness and opportunities in the agricultural sector. If this is your first time listening to the Let’s Talk Agriculture podcast, my name is Sharon Idahosa and I am your host. In today’s episode, we want to discuss drones and answer the question about the [00:01:00] opportunities for youths.

[00:01:02] Sharon Idahosa: Who are very much interested in drones and even for those who would want to start up something in this sector. So if you are youth listening to this podcast, then. I want you to sit tight and listen from an exceptional youth in this industry. On this note, join me. Welcome our guest for today’s show, Femi at Adekoya, the Flying Farmer.

[00:01:26] Sharon Idahosa: Yes, you heard me, the flying farmer. Now remember the last time we had someone like the mushroom queen? So these are people doing amazing things and really. Creating beautiful names for themselves. So if you really want to do something like this, get ready to do something exceptional. Hi Femmy. Thank you for joining the Shield Today.

[00:01:45] Sharon Idahosa: How are you doing?

[00:01:48] Femi Adekoya: Hi, Sharon. I’m very well. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast.

[00:01:54] Sharon Idahosa: We are excited to have you. I mean, I see the beautiful things that you do and it’s [00:02:00] really been amazing to watch you and what you do with young people as well. So of course. We’re very much excited to have you on the podcast today.

[00:02:10] Femi Adekoya: It’s mutual. It’s mutual. Thank you so much for your kind words.

[00:02:15] Sharon Idahosa: Of course. I mean, it’s the truth, right? So it’s not like I’m saying anything out of the ordinary. So just to get the show started, can you share briefly about your work in the agricultural space? How did you get here? Are you one of those who never wanted to start study agriculture but eventually found themselves here?

[00:02:34] Sharon Idahosa: Let’s identify ourselves quickly.

[00:02:36] Femi Adekoya: All right, so my name is Femi Adekoya and the company, the flower farmer. And yeah, to answer your question fortunately I am not part of those people. I, I am a. Agriculture has ever since been my childhood passion. And I, I do tell the story to see [00:03:00] what inspired me into Devin, into the field of agriculture.

[00:03:05] Femi Adekoya: It all started with passion. And the passion emanated or came from. The idea that a young eight years old, nine years old boy, you know we just thought of if I can plant a seed of maze into the soil or corn, whatever name we call it, and in the matter of weeks, I’m going to be reaping hundreds of that back, you know?

[00:03:28] Femi Adekoya: I’m from a little entrepreneurship mindset. That means that I’m going to be making. Some, some huge gain. And so, I see agriculture as other phenomenon as a multiplication venture. So, and that was how I had opened up to began learning about agriculture from my junior secondary school.

[00:03:53] Femi Adekoya: You know, becoming the young farmer’s president, extracurricular activity in secondary school or high school as, as you may

[00:04:00] call it and yeah, the passion keeps, keeps burning and keeps burning. I chose agriculture particularly to study agriculture at university level. My first degree which I actually did excellently as a first-class student and best graduate student.

[00:04:16] Femi Adekoya: And that is actually a reflection of my passion. So still on the passion. And yeah, while I was in school, that’s university days, I, I began my agribusiness and I can date it back to 2012. So, it’s more than a decade now. I mean, and this is beyond passion now, making money from my passion actively.

[00:04:37] Femi Adekoya: Growing vegetables raising animals. I mean, I did, I did quite a lot of things that sometimes I need to be reminded that I did and yeah. Yeah. We are today still pursuing agriculture perhaps in another level.

[00:04:54] Sharon Idahosa: Excellent, excellent. I mean, I really commend you. I know it’s not [00:05:00] easy. It’s not easy. I mean, but I really, really, really commend you for getting to this point.

[00:05:08] Sharon Idahosa: I mean, this is something that you, you wanted to get involved with right from childhood. And you are still able to pursue that passion. You know, many of us would probably just be like I want to be a banker. I want to be this, and then when we grow up, we’re not that. But it’s really interesting to see someone who really wanted to get into agriculture from the very beginning and still pursuing it.

[00:05:34] Sharon Idahosa: So once again, I and my listeners will commend you for that.

[00:05:40] Femi Adekoya: Thank you so much. Thank you.

[00:05:42] Sharon Idahosa: much. Sure, sure. So, I like to believe that there are people out there looking for opportunities in the agricultural sector, and before you can really get to explore those opportunities, you should at least have a good knowledge of that thing.

[00:05:58] Sharon Idahosa: Because with so many young people are going into agriculture and they keep saying agriculture is not profitable. But my, my thought around that is, you probably do not have a good knowledge about that business. You’re trying to find China, so you now have the mindset that agriculture is not attractive or it is not profitable, but that’s not where we are right now.

[00:06:24] Sharon Idahosa: But just to make things a little bit. Easy. For our listeners, I would like you to at least share with us the basics of drone technology and how it works. So, I mean, let’s try to educate people or the young people who are very much interested in starting drones or starting wanting to go into this space.

[00:06:43] Sharon Idahosa: At least let them have a basic understanding, because I think that’s where, that is, where the, the issue is they need to understand the business that they’re trying to get into before. Venturing into it. So, I think this would help if we can break it down a little bit more. Thank you. [00:07:00]

[00:07:01] Femi Adekoya: Okay. If I got the question, you mean just talking about introducing drone technology itself, right?

[00:07:08] Femi Adekoya: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. All right. So, Listeners drone technology has a lot of terminologies, you know from being called Unmanned Aerial vehicle that’s UAV; short acronym, to Unmanned Aerial System as a case may be, Remote Tech Pilot Aircraft. Some also call it Aerial Robots, you know?

[00:07:36] Femi Adekoya: So, but if I would give a definition to drone or drones are actually aircraft okay. That are remotely piloted by human operators. And from, from the Unmanned, it means that there is no one on board [00:08:00] compared to your conventional aircraft, like the airplane air balls, you know, that takes you from, from Abuja to London, you know?

[00:08:11] Femi Adekoya: So, I mean, there’s, there is a pilot on board controlling the affairs and piloting The, the, the aircraft that is the plane or the helicopter on board. But when it comes to drone, there are also a category of aircraft that no one is actually on board, but they are actually an aircraft that is controlled.

[00:08:30] Femi Adekoya: I could actually be controlled by a human operator or with some degree or level of autonomy, that means they can they can actually fly their self. And that is actually to the enablement of some basic navigation system and embedded system and also artificial intelligence. So yeah, basically that is actually what drones are and we have different kinds of drones.

[00:08:56] Femi Adekoya: You know, designs are evolving every day, however, but [00:09:00] Major categories of drone in terms of design or proportion system out the fly. We have the fixed wing, we have the multi rotors, and we also have the hybrid. So, the fixed wings are similar to what our aircraft, I mean, our conventional aircraft.

[00:09:17] Femi Adekoya: When I say conventional aircraft just take your mind to your, you know, piloted aircraft where you have air testes and all that, you know so they look more like that, but maybe mini or some, some, some sort. So, and that’s because their proportion system is different from another category, which is called multi culture.

[00:09:39] Femi Adekoya: So here we have. Rotors just like a helicopter, you know, something is, you know, the, the motor is moving and giving the, the aircraft a lift into the hair. And we have a hybrid of these two. So, the hybrid of these two, just like the, I’ve mentioned for the two, so there’s a hybrid of the two. So [00:10:00] both of them or all of these with their unique advantage or how the fly and, and also the advantage they come for.

[00:10:08] Femi Adekoya: Yeah. I think that’s, that’s basic. Or when I talk about drone technology generally. Sharon? Yeah, that, that, that’s it.

[00:10:17] Sharon Idahosa: Thank you so much. I think you’ve made it very much simple for anyone to easily comprehend. For me, I’m not so much of a tech person, so I’m also learning here, so don’t mind me if I probably just get carried away trying to just listen to you talk.

[00:10:32] Sharon Idahosa: Maybe I would even go back and listen to the podcast myself, because, you know, when we’re talking now, we’re not really listening. But anyway, thank you for sharing that and making it very much easy for our listeners. So, we know that. Well, before I get there, before I get there, do you also have or rather, what do you say about this?

[00:10:53] Sharon Idahosa: Or something where they say Technology would take lots of people’s job away. So, could be what, what can you [00:11:00] really just push out? I mean, just to still let young people know that in this field as well, they may not experience that because to me, I don’t think that technology can take your jobs rights except you.

[00:11:14] Sharon Idahosa: Should I say you compete? Should I put it that way? I mean, if you are in line, if you are up to date with what is going on, then you shouldn’t be worried about tech taking your jobs, right? Or robots or drones. So what can you really just push in line with drone technology?

[00:11:33] Femi Adekoya: Okay. So, making a comment on that, I mean, one of my first TED Talk talking about TED Talk talking about steering your waters in technology, how I actually addressed this issue relatively.

[00:11:47] Femi Adekoya: And to answer your question we do say the only thing that does not change is change. Because change is constant and everything evolve. And so also, we looking at the [00:12:00] civilization of the human race, we have always, civilization is all about change, is about evolution. So, the, so I said all that to actually make a point to say things do change.

[00:12:13] Femi Adekoya: Things do change. So, the question is, are you going to evolve with the change or are you going to go extinct? Cause change is the holy constant. Now what, I’m just trying to make a point. I mean, what the point I’m trying to make is that technology is a constant thing. We from the advent of time, agriculture itself, let’s put agriculture at the front row as a spotlight.

[00:12:38] Femi Adekoya: Now it has evolved over time. In the industrial, what we have, what we call industrial industry 1.0, industry 2.0, industry 3.0. Now we are in the industry 4.0. So also, in agriculture we have agriculture 1.0 2.0, 3.0. Now we are establishing in 4.0 and all of these things. It’s just not [00:13:00] about numbers, it’s about the significant change over time.

[00:13:04] Femi Adekoya: So, in Agriculture, 1.0, you know, men uses animal driven, you know technology, you know, And to feed their selves because the essence of technology is to feed ourselves. So that we can be able tohave a better life. Okay. That’s why we have technology and technology can actually come in different ways, either in hardware, in software, or even in policy, or even in strategy, or even in practices.

[00:13:30] Femi Adekoya: So, technology comes in different ways or manner. Now, the point is that technology has always been so. So, the, the, the, let’s take for example, a typewriter, I mean type sets is what we call them. You know, those who actually, the secretaries who actually use typewriter those days, perhaps in the 1960s or so.

[00:13:54] Femi Adekoya: Forgive me if I’m not getting the day right, the, the timer, but who is using typewriter [00:14:00] this date? So then now the question is, looking at the secretary, who was actually, who perhaps who has actually gotten a, a Guinness Book of record in the best type, type type in using typewriter. You know, if she, he or she would not move to the latest technology, trust me, I mean, they would not find a place in this new 21st century.

[00:14:21] Femi Adekoya: So now the question is, Technology is not necessarily taking our jobs away. It’s technology and actually making our lives better. Now what we need to pay attention to is, are we changing or perhaps in the,in, in the evolution of this technology, how are we controlling the narrative? How are we changing, how are we directing the affairs or the hem or the direction of this technology?

[00:14:50] Femi Adekoya: So that that is actually what matters. So as the person was a worry of, here is taking my job. Oh, technologies are taking my job. Brother and sister, I mean [00:15:00] father or mother that you may be listening. The fact is that. Technology is ever constant. When internet came, people complained and say, oh, this is going to make people lazy.

[00:15:11] Femi Adekoya: They’re not going to go to library anymore. But is that a discussion now? Now we are talking about t we are going to get over it. We talked about calculator, which I don’t know. You know, technology is always constant. So, to every generation we have that. So, I hope that my explanation has actually given some bit of enlightenment and perhaps it forced you to actually pay attention to the times.

[00:15:32] Sharon Idahosa: Of course, of course. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. I mean, I really like to push out this message so people know that they don’t really have to keep up with the trends, keep up with what’s going on for you to still be relevant. So, Ade, any chance I get, I have to push this this question out so that.

[00:15:53] Sharon Idahosa: Young people can really know. It is up to them. Do I want to change or do I want to remain where, where I am? [00:16:00] So I guess you just really made it very clear. So, we’ll see how people would react eventually to more technology coming in because it won’t stop.

[00:16:11] Femi Adekoya: Yeah, it won’t stop. Mm-hmm.

[00:16:14] Sharon Idahosa: So, we know that drones’ technology has been playing a major role in different areas.

[00:16:19] Sharon Idahosa: For example, the security, services, military, construction, media, and a lot more. So now let’s come back to the agriculture sector, right. How is Drone influencing the agriculture sector for the better? How is drone technology Yes. Influencing the agricultural sector for the better? What are your thoughts?

[00:16:41] Femi Adekoya: Okay. As an agricultural professional myself who was found its, its place using technology to make life better. I, I always find this question repetitive, but it is actually necessary for me to keep repeating and you know, I always get this question quite a lot and that’s [00:17:00] because this is a new technology and the wholeness lies on people like myself to always share Now, how are drones or drone technology influencing or making life better for us in the agricultural sector?

[00:17:18] Femi Adekoya: I would categorize them into two. Or in terms of functionality, drones are tools emphasis on tools. That helps us to collect data and also help us to. Help us to perform specific tasks, which are either to physical, mechanical, or, you know, in, in nature. Now, to explain better and to bring it more, more relatively.

[00:17:48] Femi Adekoya: We now live in the 21st century. We live in the. Fourth industrial revolution, which is also regarded as the, the, [00:18:00] digital age. You know, it’s a digital revolution. This is an age where data is actually key. We have various product today, you know, that are given, I mean, we have them today because of data.

[00:18:14] Femi Adekoya: So now in agriculture we have billions of datasets and data is actually very necessary for us. We know basically we know data as a raw fact, a raw fact. It means that we need data to actually make informed decision. Okay? Or so for us in agriculture we have what we call factors of production.

[00:18:42] Femi Adekoya: So, and these factors of production are basically four. But I would introduce the few points, and this would emphasize the importance of data. Then I will come back to doing technology. We have one land, labour, and capital. And the fourth in standing is [00:19:00] the entrepreneur of management. However, the, the entrepreneur or the manager or management would not be able to optimize the three a formation resources, land, label and capital.

[00:19:14] Femi Adekoya: If there is no information, or perhaps people say if there is no data, you know, so you need to actually have deep information and insights to be able to optimize these resources to be able to optimize the use of these resources to be able to guarantee maximum benefit or output. I know these are economic terms, but that’s just basic.

[00:19:40] Femi Adekoya: It’s just agriculture. I promise 101 now. So, this is why drone technology comes in as a tool to help us to actually harvest data, to collect data. So, when we are able to collect the data, we can then process the data. We can then turn the data around, okay. To then say, oh, I [00:20:00] can see an inside there. Oh, this is the pattern.

[00:20:03] Femi Adekoya: Okay. When I combine these and these together at this time, helping us to know how to produce, when to produce, you know, the five wives, or is it four wives and one husband, you know, we, we can be able to answer basic production questions in the agricultural sector or across the value chain. So now making it relatively, I can actually use drone to actually collect data.

[00:20:27] Femi Adekoya: I mean, raw fact about my plant health as a farmer, if you are a maize farmer, you know, you’ve planted hundreds of hectares of land. You know, with drone technology, you can be able to easily collect data, you know, from a, from a bed eye perspective or from above perspectives, and be able to collect the, your data in a fast manner or rapid manner.

[00:20:50] Femi Adekoya: That helps you to quickly take informed decision and tells you if you need to actually apply fertilizer. Oh, if your crop actually need fertilizer or it is actually [00:21:00] a particular disease, or, you know fungal disease, you know, you can be able to have that or perhaps data around your plant population because your plant population is, is directly proportional.

[00:21:12] Femi Adekoya: I mean, what I mean is that it’s positively correlated. It is. When, when there is high, what I’m saying is that whether there is high or optimal plant population, you are sure to actually get a better yield. But when you have low plant population, you are sure to actually have low yield.

[00:21:29] Femi Adekoya: These are data you want to actually collect. Have an inventory of your farm. How many plants germinated? That’s the question. How many plants germinated? Drones can actually help us to do that. You cannot plant one hectare of cassava, which we supposed to be which is supposed to be 10,000 plants per hectare planting at one meter by one meter spacing, you know?

[00:21:53] Femi Adekoya: But after planting, how do you ascertain that you actually had 10,000 plants on your, on your, on your [00:22:00] field? If you are getting 7,000, it means that you are from the beginning. If 30% did not germinate, it means that you have lost 30% of your yield already. You know, so how do you know this? How do you then confirm your plant population?

[00:22:17] Femi Adekoya: This is actually one of the ways drone technologies comes in, data around your land area. You’ve just bought the land, you know, you want to actually measure it or, but it’s actually an large expanse of land. You cannot actually work it accurately. But flying drones over it, collecting the data, we map the place, we can be able to do a boundary mapping and get.

[00:22:35] Femi Adekoya: An accurate measurement of that land, be it you are buying the land or perhaps you’re providing a service as a service provider yourself, or perhaps you’re leasing the land. So, there are a lot of ways that we can actually bring the technology to help us collect data. When I mean data, what should come to your mind is inside.

[00:22:53] Femi Adekoya: Now the second part is performing some specific activity. Yes. So simple, so specific activities, for [00:23:00] example, spraying of your crops. Crop protection is very, very important in in, in, in in securing your yield. So, you have invested a lot of money. Oh, you’ve bought the best of the seeds, but you, you can, the, the, the seed company can tell you, oh, this productivity is top notch.

[00:23:18] Femi Adekoya: You know, but the question is, when pest comes, they do not actually respect your productivity level, the question. So how can you actually protect your investment? This is why this is where crop protection comes in and drone technology is revolutionizing crop protection, you know, how you coming into your field and applying crop protection products a be it herbicides, pesticide, be it organic form or inorganic form as a case may be, you can be able to do this in a very short period of time and nipping pests and diseases into their board before they cause

[00:23:52] Femi Adekoya: Economic damage, you know, or before they go beyond the economic threshold. So, these are ways you know, we now have drones, which, which, [00:24:00] which can, which you can use to harvest. You know, we now have drones that I mean to harvest your tree crops, you know oranges, even an apple. Yeah. There, there are drones already.

[00:24:09] Femi Adekoya: There are drones for you to actually broadcast seeds beans you know, fertilizers. Broadcast fish, fish field, or pellets, you know broadcast lime on your field, broadcast manure, you know, and some granular substances. These are some of the ways joint technology is influencing a better agricultural sector.

[00:24:30] Femi Adekoya: Wow. I just, I will just stop there. I’ll just stop there. You,

[00:24:34] Sharon Idahosa: you’ve, you, I think you’ve done more than enough, so if, if you want to, if you want to continue talking, please, I’ll let you really, I’m, I’m going to let you Well, thank you so much for sharing that. I think you’ve; you’ve really just covered what I really wanted you to.

[00:24:52] Sharon Idahosa: To push out for our listeners, but I’m just also still concerned about how many, how many farmers are really [00:25:00] utilizing drones at this point. Have you, I mean, from your experience so far, have you come across farmers that are really interested in making use of this for the benefits of their own farms?

[00:25:13] Sharon Idahosa: Just a quick question.

[00:25:16] Femi Adekoya: Okay. Yes, that’s, if that’s a short answer to your question and to buttress that point. I’m a service provider. I lead a company called Integrated Aerial Precision. So, where we provide services and we are in business, you know, so when we are in business, it simply means that there is actually a demand for us to be in business.

[00:25:36] Femi Adekoya: So, the demand is growing truly on a, on positive trajectory is, is increasing at an increasing rate. And we have clients already who are actually, who have actually seen the benefit of drones you know, on their field, on their farms. Yeah, yeah, that’s true. Spraying of their crops. crop monitoring, happy it a different level of acceptance or value.

[00:25:57] Femi Adekoya: Perception, but already we, we, we [00:26:00] have clients which we are serving already. Yeah. And we’re in business.

[00:26:04] Sharon Idahosa: Well, that’s all I want to, that’s all I want to know. So, this one now is for young people out there as well who would like to learn about the opportunities that can be available to them. Many would want to go into like, because that’s what, that’s where we want them to go.

[00:26:22] Sharon Idahosa: We no longer want to hear them saying agriculture is not attractive, it is unprofitable. So, we want to show them a part that they could use. I mean, they don’t necessarily have to go to the farms anymore. They don’t have to carry hose and cutlasses. So, we are saying make use of your creativity to. Transform and bring something innovative to the agricultural sector, put together the art and the science and come up with something.

[00:26:47] Sharon Idahosa: So that is where we are trying to push them to right? So, what are the opportunities for them if they decide to go into drone technology? How can they tap into it?

[00:26:59] Femi Adekoya: [00:27:00] Okay. The use of Drone technology or opportunities in drone technology quite many. And now I know that that is actually a cliche, but.

[00:27:12] Femi Adekoya: The, the, the opportunities that are present in the use of drone technology. Now, like I said, I’ve actively defined in terms of functionality, drones as a tool. So now if you are studying any agricultural course or you have interest in agriculture than different, Professions, I would say careers that drone technology itself is carving out for you.

[00:27:41] Femi Adekoya: Okay. Which, which, which, which I would say now let’s start with drone piloting or operation. You know, there is in drone pilots in an operation. I am a drone, a drone pilot. Of course, in my, in my organization, I’m the chief room pilot and AC accountability officer. Okay.

[00:28:00] So, that means that I oversee other drone pilots and ensure that the organization is taken into practice and delivering a safe, safe, efficient operation in all of our dealings, you know, based on regulation and every other framework or headache.

[00:28:18] Femi Adekoya: Now as a drone pilot you know, you can actually be a drone pilot in agriculture piloting the drone, you know, how sexy or attractive you put it in Gen Z pilot, how that is, you know, to I’m, I’m, I’m a drone pilot in agriculture, you know I mean that, I know that interests you. That is. That makes sense.

[00:28:36] Femi Adekoya: You know you know, then you, you, you are now modern, that’s what it means like you are modern. You have moved away from using hoes and cutlass. You have moved away from backing a 20 liter of sprayer, and you are. You know, hitting with your left hand or your right-hand walking at a constant pace, trying to cover your nose and your head, you know, you know that kind [00:29:00] of drudgery and struggle on the field.

[00:29:02] Femi Adekoya: You know, the sun hitting you. But with doing technology, guess what? You can actually be at the edge of the field. You know, you are there because you need to be there, but the drone is actually one, the one doing the job for you. You can set it autonomously and it begins to spray without you even inhaling the chemical, you know?

[00:29:19] Femi Adekoya: You, you, you, you, you can be perhaps in your office, you are a farmer yourself, can be your office and send your drone from your office space veranda and it go up and goes scout the feed for you autonomously. It’ll come back to you with reports, you know, will report perhaps in PDFs or, or, or, or, or in some format, you know, that are maybe useful to you going forward to explore the data you’ve actually collected.

[00:29:46] Femi Adekoya: You know, I’m actually painting what’s the reality, not the future. Yeah. I’m painting the reality now, what is actually happening in drone technology. You know, you can, perhaps you are an agronomist, you know, agronomist or a consultant. You [00:30:00] now, now you can actually call yourself a data-driven agronomist.

[00:30:03] Femi Adekoya: You can call yourself a precision agronomist. Now these are actually the times not, but beyond the times that is actually what you’re doing. You are actually using drones as a tool, your hands to okay, or you are going for inspection work on a farm and oh, I have 10 acres of land that are we going to track?

[00:30:23] Femi Adekoya: Or how are you going to navigate the field? They say, oh Mr. Mr. Farmer. Okay. Be addressed. Let me as, as I, as I pilot my drone and collect the data I need. And I’ll write you, my report. I will send you the report when I get home. Thank you so much. You know, I mean, you, because the drone is going there on the field to see what you want to see, you know, to go do inspection for you.

[00:30:44] Femi Adekoya: And then you, you are writing a robust report based on your knowledge and expertise, exploring the data, the vegetation industries. It can also be an a, a remote sensing specialist, you know, there are a lot of, lot of venues for you to come in. Perhaps you are an engineer or you have [00:31:00] interest in technicality.

[00:31:00] Femi Adekoya: You can be. Now we, we now assemble our drones in Nigeria, you know, and we, we, we are about to even start training people on that. You know, we have a team of engineers already. You can become an agricultural drone engineer or technician, you know, trying to troubleshoot. What’s the problem with this drone?

[00:31:19] Femi Adekoya: Preparing it, ensuring that it’s actually at the best efficiency level. You know you can actually become a crop health disease analyst; you know? And that’s because you use drones as your two, you. You can become a software developer because drone technology can’t kind of write on software, you know, different software for different purposes.

[00:31:40] Femi Adekoya: You can actually write codes to actually ensure that we can operate autonomously to actually fulfil specific tasks. And you can, you know, maybe you can, you have you have flare for sales and marketing. There is actually a, a, a space for you there, of [00:32:00] course. Yeah. Also training too. Yeah, training.

[00:32:03] Femi Adekoya: Like I do, I do, I do training and I do I mean training and education through my academy. So that’s actually one of some of the things we do. By the way, my academy is Precision Field Academy, so we do precision agriculture there. There’s a lot of ways you can actually plug in, you know, now we’re talking about drugs for logistics.

[00:32:23] Femi Adekoya: I look forward, this is actually not yet in Nigeria, but in some medical feed, it’s actually available. You know, it’s actually available both for agriculture or for massive transportation, but it’s actually something that would, would be coming soon. And the technologies are here already just for policy to catch up or regulation to catch up.

[00:32:42] Femi Adekoya: So yeah, there’s a whole lot of ways you can actually come in you know if you’re a computer scientist, of course I’ve mentioned software. I’ve mentioned artificial intelligence is actually playing a very huge role when it comes to drone data. You know, how can we explore data? You know? Now we are talking about computer [00:33:00] vision.

[00:33:00] Femi Adekoya: You know, or machine vision. Now we’re talking about image processing or image analysis. These are actually ways you can actually specialize to, to, in, in, in, in this 24th century agriculture as enabled by drone technology.

[00:33:15] Sharon Idahosa: Thank you so much for sharing that. Guys, you’re, you are here now. There are so many things to do, so many things, so I don’t want, I, I really don’t want to hear anybody saying this.

[00:33:26] Sharon Idahosa: There are no jobs. I, I don’t want to hear people keep saying agriculture is not attractive. That is the reason why I’m, I am having these experts on the show so you can hear from them directly. So, you’ll see that there is something for you to really do. I mean, if you decide to put in the work, you have to put in the work if you really want to succeed in any sector.

[00:33:49] Sharon Idahosa: So, I mean, nothing good comes easy, right? So, these are awesome opportunities available to you. Just, just connect, just start doing something I’m sure that you can [00:34:00] always reach out to Femi. I’m sure. I mean, through his precision academy. I think it works with youths also that that, I mean, it helps them to also get training.

[00:34:11] Sharon Idahosa: So, this is something that you should do. But meanwhile, please tell us a little bit about the academy so people can really know how they can start getting involved, get trained for this, and switch to the areas of interests

[00:34:23] Femi Adekoya: Awesome. So precision Field Academy our vision is to actually Train or raise you to Despite your background, you know, who are digitally savvy farmers and agricultural professionals contributing to sustainable and equitable development of your community. Leveraging and the power of technology.

[00:34:48] Femi Adekoya: So, our mission, particularly in short, is just to, you know, just like the vision is to raise the next generation of tech client and digital savvy. Farmers and [00:35:00] professionals. So, we have three methodology you know, to actually achieving this mission. One is actually education and knowledge sharing.

[00:35:09] Femi Adekoya: We, yeah, we have. Monthly webinars where we bring top experts and professionals or practitioners in the field of precision agriculture or digital agriculture. Bringing them in our space and sharing knowledge for about one hour, 30 minutes on Imagined Technology. We’ve talked about, GI, talked about drone technology, how to get started.

[00:35:33] Femi Adekoya: Lot of questions. And also, we have Training and skill development, and that is where we have hands-on trainings certifications, licensing, facilitation of your license. As, as case maybe you know, for example, don’t technically need you to actually be a licensed person, just like you have licensed pilots, you know?

[00:35:53] Femi Adekoya: So, we have other skills that can actually benefit you to, from artificial intelligence using of [00:36:00] artificial intelligence in agriculture, data science in agriculture, geographic information system, and remote sensing. These emerging technologies are places that we are big on, or technology that we are actually big on.

[00:36:12] Femi Adekoya: We promoted. We also have the last point I mentioned, Is coaching and mentorship. We understand that coaching and mentorship is very, very critical to actually shorten the, the, the shorten the span, you know, to success. You know, in, in, in venturing into something. And also eliminating the, the trier and hero method because somebody has actually gone ahead of you.

[00:36:40] Femi Adekoya: Somebody who is passionate can be able to share with you. I experienced this. This is how I think you should do it. This is how I think you should do it, and to actually gain success, you know? So yeah, these are actually ways we are actually reaching out our goal or our mission. So, reach out to us. Reach out to me, reach out to my team, precision [00:37:00] freeacademy@gmail.com.

[00:37:02] Femi Adekoya: Or reach out to me personally. Yeah, I’m, I’m, I have, I have some little bit of digital footprints on some major social media, so my name is Femi Adekoya. You can also search for the flying farmer. You would always get through to me.

[00:37:16] Sharon Idahosa: Thank you so much for sharing about your company and of course spitting out your information for people to reach out.

[00:37:22] Sharon Idahosa: I’m very particular about that and I’m sure that they would definitely benefit from what you have to offer. So, I appreciate you once again coming on the show. I’m sure my listeners would definitely appreciate this episode. I mean, this is something really amazing, insightful, and educating so. This is something to really benefit from.

[00:37:43] Sharon Idahosa: So, I mean, I’ve gone, I’ve gone listening to it too, so I’ll probably know how it would help my pr. Right? And media.

[00:37:50] Sharon Idahosa: Yes, there’s always, there’s always something. I mean, there’s always a way. So, I’ve gone look for it too. But thank you once again, thank you so much for coming on the [00:38:00] show and sharing your, your experience, your knowledge with us on the Let’s Talk Agriculture podcast.

[00:38:04] Femi Adekoya: You’re most welcome. Thank you so much for having me, and I hope our listeners have been inspired, enlightened, and you, you’re going to be taking action.

[00:38:17] Femi Adekoya: That’s the, that’s the key. Yes,

[00:38:20] Sharon Idahosa: they will take action. If they don’t, I’ll chase after them. But guys, we have come to the end of today’s episode. I hope you love this episode. And of course, please share with your colleagues, share with any youth around you because this is something really amazing, beneficial to those who are looking to get into agriculture.

[00:38:40] Sharon Idahosa: And also, the tech space as well. So, I want you to follow us on Instagram, on Facebook, LinkedIn. That is where you’ll find let’s talk agriculture and also explore all of our episodes. We have amazing episode, we have blockchain, we have supply chain, we have lots of them. So please do check it out and let us know any other [00:39:00] topics you’d like us to cover.

[00:39:01] Sharon Idahosa: Thank you so much.

If you liked this episode, then surely you would want to listen to our podcast episodes on technology in the agriculture sector.

If you are concerned about the future of the agriculture sector then you would love to listen to Kenneth Obayuwana talk about this subject.

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