23rd June, 2025, I lectured a class of master's students at the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, University of Ibadan.

I was invited by Senior lecturer, Idris Olabode Badiru to come expose the students to the evolving nature of the discipline, the increasing role of digital media and emerging trends, and also the realities and possibilities beyond school, using my podcast and agricultural communication activities as case study.

This was to expand the post-graduate students’ knowledge and capacity and prepare them for life after school, the critical needs and the future of the field.

It was a 2hr lecture from 11am to 1pm with the following structure:

• Introduction and Content (10 mins)
• Core lecture with slides (60 mins)
• Interactive case study activity (30 mins)
• Q&A and wrap-up (20 mins)

The lecture was an interesting and interactive one. I educated on what agricultural and rural development journalism is, the essence, and its distinct difference from general journalism. I stressed the impacting and participatory nature of agricultural and rural development journalism and the for specific specilaized knowledge for anyone seeking a career in the field.

I took the scholars through how journalism is evolving with consideration of cost, usability, accessibility, versatility, experience and participation etc. and how digital media is being rapidly adopted. Also emphasized were emerging trends in journalism and their impacts -AI, augmented reality, immersive story telling, interactive visuals, animations, etc.

I exposed the students to career possibilities in Agricultural and Rural Development Journalism, informing them about the different careers in the field and insights on pursuing them.

I took the post-grads through podcasting using my podcasting as case study and talking on navigating career in agricultural communications. I enlightened them on attaining clarity and choosing a part, things to consider starting and the mindset and values to embody and how to organically grow, leverage network and social media.

I also discussed with them what social media has to offer, the benefits and the individual strengths of each app and taught how to leverage them effectively and for career growth.

I engaged them in firsthand practical creation of attention-grabbing and holding caption, title, headlines and stories, and on Facebook, X and Instagram, and edutainments (soap opera, short drama, infomercial).

I was amazed by the brilliance of the students -their answers to questions and the quality of work they delivered in short timespan to the exercise.

This expansive and practical education is really important to expanding the knowledge horizons of the scholars and positioning them for self-development and improvement, and impact.

I was happy the Department and Senior Lecturer Idris Olabode Badiru facilitated this -merging theory with practical.

This helps with building an enthusiastic savvy skill-force that bridges information and communication gaps promoting awareness, understanding, collaborations and actions resolving agricultural and rural development issues unlocking growth with spread to other sectors and with impact on the society at large.

This event discussed the importance of future generation toward the prosperity of agriculture, food systems and sustainable food security, and preparing children toward such.

The discussion held with Adebayo Adeoti who brought deep clarity and insights having been involved in transforming rural life and especially lives of rural children facilitating inclusive impactful education that bridges education and skills gap, improve their thinking, creativity and innovativeness, capacity, agency and possibilities, helping the children grow into developing solutions and future leaders impacting their immediate community and society at large.

We first ascertained the role and importance of children and young people in agriculture, where we affirmed that young people are important for the future of agriculture not only serving as sustainable workforce replacement for the sector but also helping to maintain other agricultural functions (for instance conserving biodiversity and sustainability) and establishing food solutions through creative and innovative endeavours.

The conclusion was reached that children are malleable and worth the investment of education and on sustainable agriculture beneficial for the environment, where they would more likely embody such in the future.

We also assessed the importance of education in preparing children for this important role, understanding the huge educational gap and with consideration for agricultural education in bridging the gap.

Nigeria’s has 18.5 million out-of-school children. This is highest in the world. The figure represents over 8% of the Nigerian population and even embedded inequality across gender and regions. Children of primary school age constitute 55.5% of the 18.5 million out-of-school children. Education share of national budget is low and fair away from UNESCO 25% recommendations.

It was determined that poverty, cultural barriers, infrastructure and ineffective use of resources were the causal factors.While the potential for agricultural education and engagement to remedy this was considered, we delineated between engaging children in agriculture and child labour often seen synonymous as there are about 160 million children involved in child labour across the world and 60% occurring in agriculture.

Adebayo informed that that intent and who benefits from such activity were key differentiators and push for the need for sensitization on this in conjunction parents and teachers.

Ways to meaningfully engage children in agriculture were seen to, where Adeoti gave practical insights with their works at Bani Agribusiness Solutions how they were creatively and innovatively engaging school children in agriculture and assigning age-appropriate tasks.

Of important mention is the 4-H method of agricultural education, with the importance of education, mastery and autonomy around individual interest which helps to ensure belonginess and sustainability, and the emphasis on generosity -to use what is learnt to help others and the society.

Also, while agricultural education was deemed effective in remedying the educational gap and serving other benefits instilling life skills in children helping with navigating the world, it was was not seen as the sole remedy however an integral part of a holistic fix.

The event concluded with contrasting two different societies (US and Nigeria) on education and agriculture of the lens of the guest’s experience, and drawing insights and things to adopt to improve the Nigerian education and agriculture, while advice on navigating career through the lived experience of the guest was given which entailed focus, discipline, hard work, communicating and documenting efforts, networking, leveraging social media.

An exercise given to MSc Students on the 23rd of June 2025 at the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, University of Ibadan, during a lecturer on Agricultural and Rural Development Journalism taught by The Lasgidi Farmer.

An exercise given to MSc Students on the 23rd of June 2025 at the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, University of Ibadan, during a lecturer on Agricultural and Rural Development Journalism taught by The Lasgidi Farmer.

This particular upload is for Group 4 of the four groups the students were divided into.

Names of the Group members are below:

• Ajagbe Akimat
• Azeez Oluwatobiloba
• Oyetade Kehinde
• Opadotun Motolani
• Alawode Damilola
• Obasade Oluwaseun
• Ogunle Timilehin
• Omilabu David
• Kolade Toluwani
• Oshokpekha Christiana

An exercise given to MSc Students on the 23rd of June 2025 at the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, University of Ibadan, during a lecturer on Agricultural and Rural Development Journalism taught by The Lasgidi Farmer.

This particular upload is for Group 3 of the four groups the students were divided into.

Names of the Group members are below:

• Elum Bethel. M
• Rafiu Sodiq. O
• Alliu Babs Alliu
• Bamikale Eunice. M
• Oseni Abideen. B
• Shittu Temitope. O

An exercise given to MSc Students on the 23rd of June 2025 at the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, University of Ibadan, during a lecture on Agricultural and Rural Development Journalism taught by Toheeb Azeez (The Lasgidi Farmer).

This particular upload is for Group 2 of the four groups the students were divided into.

Names of the Group members are below:

• Ogunbase Taiwo
• Ogunyemi Blessing
• Adeleke Victor
• Solomon Adesina
• Oladejo Hammed

This episodes begins the edutainment series of The Lasgidi Farmer Podcast.

Edutainment entails educating and persuading behavioural change and adopt innovations, new and beneficial practices. entertainment. It could drama, soap opera, or informercial.

This particular drama was written by Toheeb Azeez (The Lasgidi Farmer and the founder and host of The Lasgidi Farmer Podcast) in 2017 and published the same year.

It was later voice-acted on 23rd June 2025, in and by him and Oluwatoyin a master's student at this time at the University of Ibadan, Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development.

This discussion is a must listen to as it is rare and in-depth on the topic of discourse and which was discussed from personally lived experiences.

Concepts and themes as circular economy, upcycling, recycling, food security and food sustainability, and Agtech were addressed, differentiated and the opportunities within their value chains discussed.

Kafilat talked about the market and potential for circular economy and home growing foods and the challenges hindering their adoption, exploitation and commercialisation.

The guest speaker especially differentiated between food security and food sustainability emphasizing the importance of the latter and the importance of home-growing food to achieving them.

She spoke on the role of technology for the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of growing foods from home and also upcycling and informed on factors hindering adoption and participation. She spoke on the strategies to eradicate these.

Kafilat Adedeji with years of experience at the intersection of the discussed fields detailed her experiences providing a guide for anyone seeking to play in the field and agriculture.

She narrated her story, spoke about about her challenges and how she navigated them, giving practical guide especially for young people with pursuing an idea, making it work, scalable, fundable and sustainable.