Six schools emerged as winners, clinching a total of N2.85m in prize money at the grand finale of the Agriquest Lagos Student Competition held on Wednesday.
The quiz competition organised by Paradise Dynamic Farms Limited saw both Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary School students tested in agricultural knowledge.
At the event held in Alausa, Lagos, Fountain Heights School bagged the grand prize of N1m for winning the Senior Secondary School category.
The Fountain Heights trio of Ajola Adeoye, Udochukwu Ike and Anas Salami amassed 24 points to beat other contestants to first position.
Angus Memorial College, with 19 points, emerged first runner-up, winning N500,000, while Mictec School came second runner-up and was rewarded with N250,000.
Angus was represented by Haruna Fridaus, Adelola Hamdalat and Onabe Cyprian, while Mictec School had Ezeani Ebuka, Aikhene Jeffrey and Akintola Timileyin as participants.
In the junior category, Topfield College won the star prize of N500,000.
Udenyi Micheal, Aladi Victory and Moses Emmanuel represented the winning school.
The second-place prize of N350,000 was won by Rosebud School, represented by Ojezuabi Godwin, Alabi Diana and Alozie Olivia.
Dansol College, featuring Ikemsinachi Onyebum, Ifeanyi Ene and Ololade Olorunyomi, came third in the junior category, winning N250,000.
Ten public and private schools in Lagos participated in the maiden edition of the Agriquest Lagos Student Competition.
Brand Director of the organisers, Paradise Dynamic Farms Limited, Robson Gloria, said the event was aimed at stemming the relegation of agriculture and reviving students’ interest in the sector.
Robson said, “We see that a lot of young people are looking very much into tech. They want to relegate agriculture. They don’t want to soil their hands.
“But we understand that when they soil their hands, that’s where the food comes from. That’s where the clothing comes from. That’s where so many things, even furniture and other items that we use, come from.
“So, as a nation, we cannot abandon agriculture and relegate it to the background. That is one of the reasons we started the AgriQuest Lagos Students Competition.”
She said the competition would become an annual event and would expand beyond Lagos in the coming years.
Recognising the growing impact of technology on all facets of life, Robson said Artificial Intelligence and technology could be adapted to agriculture and its value chain to ease operations.
She said, “We all know that AI is here, and it is a beautiful thing because it makes jobs easier for us. We should take advantage of AI and make it easier for them to do their planting, farming and harvesting.
“They can use AI as a tool to achieve faster results in agriculture. While people often associate agriculture with farming alone, we are also looking at mechanised farming and farmers using technology to do jobs faster.
“So AI is a welcome idea. We need to find ways to incorporate AI into farming. But for now, we are starting from the classroom.”
To scale up the event across the country, Robson stressed the need for sponsors and partnerships, noting that the prize money for the winning school could rise to N10m.
She said, “We are open to partnerships and sponsors coming in. It makes things easier when we have sponsors supporting this initiative.
“This was done in-house. Imagine what we can achieve if we have sponsors from different organisations across the country.
“If I were to project, we should be looking at N10m for the winner of this competition. With more sponsorship and partnership, we can even exceed N10m.”
She further stated that the Lagos State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education was informed about the maiden edition.
