At a time when people in his age group are roaming the streets in search of white collar jobs, 20-year-old Haruna Hassan Tukur is thinking of how he can produce enough food from his farm in Kebbi State to feed all Nigerians.

Although the farm is taking shape, Tukur, who just graduated from a University in Dubai, has set a target for himself: to be able to produce enough food from the farm to feed Nigerians and export the excess.

In this interview, Tukur speaks on why Nigerian youth must wake up from slumber and do something to create jobs instead of waiting for government jobs.

Excerpts:

What is your name?

My name is Haruna Hassan Tukur, the Chief Executive Officer of Havas Farms, Kebbi State.

How did you come about the idea of running a farm instead of being in the university or doing something else?

I am a graduate of Accounting and Finance from Heriot-Watt University Dubai. I have a passion for farming to produce enough food for the nation and to help the people of my community. By so doing, I will be helping to boost the local economy by creating jobs instead of waiting for job from the government as most Nigerian youths are doing.

Who influenced your thinking?

I can describe Usman Dantata, who owns Anadaria farms as my mentor in this case. He is a relation of the popular Dantata in Kaduna and he motivated me to go into agriculture.   I was motivated to venture into farming after seeing what he had done in that sector of the Nigerian economy. That was why I told my family members that I wanted to go into farming as soon as I returned from my university education in Dubai.

At the initial stage most people in my family were just wondering why a fresh graduate of accounting would be talking about farming instead of banking or something in that direction. I made it clear to all that I wanted to do something that would benefit others from the outset.

I have an undying passion for farming and no one can persuade me to leave it for anything else. That explained why I had to relocate from the comfort of my family in Abuja to Kebbi to work on my farm project in a bid to prove my critics wrong. So far I can say that all is going as planned.

Now the question to ask is where are you getting the money to do farming?

Well my mother started supporting me to an extent but I want to grow what I am doing because I have seen that it is something that can help Nigeria. It is something that can help my people. That is why I am going into full mechanised farming because the large expanse of land that we are cultivating cannot be covered manually.

We need all the mechanised tools to produce food on a commercial basis so that we can have enough for local consumption and export. We are doing our best to break away from the traditional farming methods that cannot take us to anywhere in this country.

What is the worth of your farm in terms on Naira and Kobo and what are you expecting from the farm for instance over time?

Well the hectare of land that I have planted with soya beans, I am expecting N8 million at the end of three months.

Isn’t that too ambitious?

Well you can say that but from what I have invested and from the way things are going and I have had other professionals come into my farm and they have actually made an estimate of what I am about to get so that is where I got my figure.

So what is the farm worth really?

We don’t want to put any value on the 23 hectare farmland we are cultivating but we can only ask Nigerians to watch out for us in the next few months and years. So, I have sunk in over N1.5 million into the farm and we are still putting in more to move it to the level we want it to attain in the shortest possible time. We are currently concentrating on Soya beans and fish farming. We hope to add more crops and services.

How old is your farm?

My farm started early this year as I told I am a fresh graduate and I decided to venture into agriculture.

So tell me about yourself?

I am going to start from my grandparents. My grandfather from my mother’s side is the late Senator Balatafida Iyawore and my grandfather from my father’s side is the late  Royal Highness Mohammed Tukur of Iyawore and my father was the late Hassan Tukur and my mother is the Honourable Halima Tukur. My first sister, Zaniab,   is a lawyer and I have a brother called Abdulahi.

How old are you?

I am 20 years old.

So how do you see yourself in the farming business in the next decade?

God willing in the next 10 years I see myself as one of the most successful Nigerian farmers because I intend to feed the nation as well as export in order for us to grow our GDP because the major challenge we are facing is the lack of export.

From your experience, what can tell the Nigerian youths?

I want to tell them to start with what they have and where they are. I believe that when you put yourself a hundred percent to something and you commit to it the universe is going to serve you. The agriculture industry holds a lot for all in this country.

As Nigeria is blessed with millions of hectares of land, everyone should go back to their community and do something. But for that to work, the government at all levels must assist the youths to go into mechanised commercial farming to boost their economic base and reduce dependence on the government.

By so doing, unemployment will become a thing of the past and social security problems would disappear from our land.

The reason why I am not going into the white collar job is because I want to be the master of my own trade. I want to be an employer of labour and control my resources and destiny rather than depend on anyone for my progress. In other words, I want to be my own boss.