In the agricultural sector, the title “trainer” has become a fertile ground. Everyone wants to be a trainer. Obviously, the consequences are serious. Very heavy.
For example, a month ago I was in Loumbila for a report. During the filming, my interviewee told me, with a naturally discomfited look on her face, about her problems with her farm, or at least her misadventure with a trainer. Here are the facts. She wanted to build an agricultural greenhouse to grow tomatoes. After doing some research on the internet, she came across a training offer. She signed up and was given some very attractive figures during the course. The trainer, or so-called trainer, assured her that with a greenhouse of one hundred square metres, she would have an annual turnover of 7 million CFA francs. Auctioned and sold.
An example of an agricultural disaster
Once the express training was over, she hired his services. A hundred square metre greenhouse quickly sprang up on the site, billed at 3 million CFA francs. She was already rubbing her hands waiting to pocket the 7 million CFA francs a year. But the result was a dead loss. The tomato plants withered before drying out, as if they had been sprayed with a dangerous chemical.
The configuration of the greenhouse installed was not adapted to the climate of the area, so everything had to be undone and repaired by the initial DIY. After cross-checking information, the trainer is in reality someone who parachuted into the field and who used information found on the internet to make money. Without any effort to adapt the information drawn to the reality on the ground and in the area.
Unfortunately, fake trainers abound. Zero training. Zero immersion in a farming business. Zero practical skills. Yet they claim to train. And the result is usually disastrous for the learners: investments at a loss, abandoned farms and certainly a bank loan that’s difficult to pay off, and hello the hassle and the sleepless nights.
Clean up the environment
Yes, the land doesn’t lie. Training is very important for anyone who wants to enter the farming arena. To quote a famous advert, if sheet metal is not sheet metal, then trainer is not trainer. There are good seeds out there, but there are also, and above all, bad seeds, not to say charlatans who seek to exploit the credulity of others. It’s up to everyone to be careful enough and to know how to sort out the false trainers from their choices.
The ministry responsible must necessarily and urgently clean up the sector, so that it is no longer possible for anyone to organise training courses without prior authorisation. In the same way that it’s not allowed to open a school or a pharmacy without authorisation, you can’t just allow anyone to call themselves an agricultural trainer without a permit from the relevant authority.
Hadepté DA
