The 2022 graduating class of Navuso Agricultural Technical Institute (NATI) have been told to think and dream big to succeed in the agriculture sector as fully commercial farmers.

While officiating at the graduation ceremony, Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr Mahendra Reddy challenged the young men and women to see themselves as business people, and not just as farmers.

“Your journey to become a successful agricultural entrepreneur begins now and I wish to urge you to think about the following if you wish to be successful - you need to conduct yourself not as a farmer but as an agricultural entrepreneur.

“From day one, you must see yourself as an agricultural entrepreneur, as an agricultural business person, you’re not just a farmer, you need to treat agriculture as a business therefore you are an agricultural entrepreneur,” said Hon. Reddy.

The graduates were also advised to set concise and achievable short-term and long-term targets to better position themselves, their families and their village communities for sustainable agricultural and socio-economic development.

“You need to think big, you need to dream big, and that is how you need to think, you must think about where you want to be from day one,” said Minister Reddy.

“You must immediately map out where you want to be in 5-years’ time, 10-years’ time, 15-years’ time and in 20-years’ time, because along with this, the dreams of the other members of the Mataqali will be attached to your own, that of your family, village and mataqali because you won’t be growing alone,” said Hon. Reddy.

“Your growing will also lead to the growth of the entire village and therein, I’m asking that the mataqali and village members must support you too because by you growing, it will also allow for them to grow, so you need to think big and say that that’s where you want to be in 15-years’ time.

“Start small and gradually strategize and plan to get there, it is crucial that you must have a plan and a strategy to get there,” Minister Reddy reiterated.

He also paid tribute to the leadership structure of NATI, despite these recent trying times amidst COVID-19, for enabling a conducive environment for competency-based agricultural technical learning, which had set the building blocks for the graduating young replacement farmers.

“One of the key strategic priority areas of the Ministry of Agriculture’s 5-Year Strategic Development Plan is the establishment and development of commercial agriculture. To achieve this, the sector needs to produce qualified young farmers, who are competency-based, and who should be willing to expand their agriculture business and grow beyond, for that reason, I’m grateful to the management and staff of NATI for preparing these young graduates.

The graduates were also reminded of the importance of reinvesting into their farms to ensure their continued growth as commercial farmers.

Meanwhile, Best Young Farmer Bera Colati of Naqara in Naitasiri said he was determined to attend NATI as the course offered at the institute was comprehensive for agriculture students.

“I am just thankful to receive the awards because there were two times I almost canceled my studies here in Navuso because my wife got sick and ended up in the hospital, the decision I made to stay and continue my studies was because of the support and advice I got from the school which allowed for me to continue and help me to achieve what I have achieved today,” said Mr Colati.

“I want to start planting crops and vegetables as my immediate crops, as a whole, I want to be a commercial farmer, I want to go straight into commercial farming as that has been my dream and my family has sacrificed a lot before we came here and now that we have the land, I can start providing for our livelihood and I am ready to tackle the challenges ahead,” said Mr Colati.

The graduating students are sent off from the gates of Muainase with a graduation package that includes land with Lease Titles to give them a head start, allowing them to put into practice all the lessons learnt, thus beginning the journey to sowing the seeds of excellence.

29 students graduated with a Certificate in Agriculture (Integrated) Level IV while 6 students attained a National Certificate in Dairy Level II from the institute.

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