In the spirit of innovations and blazing new trails in agriculture this week, we feature and honour a very special woman- Mrs. Tade Wemimo.

Mrs. Tade Wemimo is a retired principal nursing officer making major impacts in farming. She is a renowned farmer from South-West Nigeria residing in Akure, Ondo state. She grew up amidst farming and this shaped her strong passion for agriculture. She has been practising farming for over 25 years and her experience spans cocoa, oil palm, arable crops farming, and beekeeping. She is a trained Private Nursery Operator raising seedlings for oil palm, cocoa, hybrid coconut, and 16 types of fruits. She manages over 10 acres each of cocoa and oil palm plantations. Her achievements have been recognised as she was the recipient of the prestigious “Best Female Farmer in Ondo State” Award in 2004 and also distinguished with another award in 2019 as the “Best Female Farmer in Akure South LGA.”

She came into the media limelight after she released a video in March 2021 showing how she planted yam sett and yam seeds of three types: white yam, yellow yam, and water yam, in over 400 bags. They all grew out of the bags instead of the traditional big heaps on farmland that we are used to. The video also showed that ropes, instead of stakes, were provided as support for the spiralling yam stems.

Her decision to publish the video emanated from her strong desire to enlighten people about innovative ways of farming and thereby help families attain food sufficiency. She is an advocate for homestead farming as this method allows people to grow food in the convenience of their homes and in places with limited access to arable land. Homestead farming in bags is also safe and requires minimal weeding. It can be used to grow other crops like Irish potatoes, vegetables, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, etc. Planting in bags is easy to start and maintain, less labour intensive, convenient, and economical.

Mrs. Tade is passionate about human empowerment and equipping fellow farmers with the right knowledge to make their endeavour easy and successful. She has trained over 200 people from all over Nigeria and abroad. Her trainees have been put together on a social media platform, created by her, where they continually acquire more knowledge on best agricultural practices and innovations. Participants on the platform also get encouragement from testimonies of successes recorded by other members. She informed one of our reporters that she would do much more if given a grant which will enable her expand to large-scale farming. In the same light, she recommends schools to include this concept of bag farming in their agricultural science curriculum thereby introducing the method to students early.

She encourages everyone to key into this method to move us closer to achieving food sufficiency in the country at large. She can be reached on 08034754122 for further information on this innovative and commendable initiative of farming.

This true is rare gem. It's was thru her video I was able to experiment on 20 PCs of yam recipes n sack for my mother. And they are doing quite well. My mother didn't believe it was possible but now she is a believer in sack farming

That's great!