In episode five of the Bridge Africa Podcast, host Edna-Stella Fayomi takes us through the amazing story of Fatimé Souckar Terab, a young Chadian woman revolutionizing agribusiness in Africa. Fatimé’s story begins with a surprise career turn: after training in aeronautics, she shocked everyone by announcing that she was returning home to start a farm. Family and friends were sceptical – even her father jokingly asked how she expected to succeed at farming where so many men had failed. Not one to be deterred, Fatimé was determined to “redefine the image of agriculture” from a last-resort profession to a vibrant entrepreneurial vocation. With tenacity and vision, she created a thriving fruits-and-vegetables farm and even opened “Khadar Market”, a shop selling her produce, showing that agriculture can bring both pride and prosperity. Her narrative, as she shares with Edna-Stella, is one of “passion overcoming prejudice”, turning mockery into motivation and changing minds on what a farmer resembles.
A recurring theme in this conversation is the “lack of role models in agribusiness”. Fatimé explains that the majority of young Africans are not falling into farming because they don’t frequently see “success stories” they can relate to. She herself did not have many role models for farming when she was growing up – most images of farmers were of old struggling farmers, rather than energetic young entrepreneurs. Fatimé and Edna-Stella explain that family expectations and social pressures too often shove intelligent young individuals towards medicine, engineering, or office jobs, whereas “farming is unfairly seen as low-prestige or unprofitable”. Aside from perception, practical barriers add to the hesitation – land access, modern technology, and financing can be hard for young people to secure, making the leap into agribusiness even more daunting. Fatimé emphasizes that is exactly why clear role models and support systems are crucial. When young people see role models to follow and know that there are resources they can access – whether irrigation machines or start-up loans – they are empowered to venture into agribusiness. She passionately contends that with the right support and examples of success, Africa’s young people would be able to harness agriculture’s immense potential, rather than shun it.
To turn these ideas into action, Fatimé shares the story of the “AYA Chad Bootcamp program” – an initiative she founded to train and support the next generation of agri-preneurs. She describes to Edna-Stella how the bootcamp is designed as a hands-on, intensive training program that gets young people engaged in both “business strategy and down-to-earth farming skills”. Unlike a traditional classroom, however, the bootcamp combines theory and practice: students might be learning how to craft a farm business plan or work with markets one day, and then they are actually “out in the field planting seeds, tending crops, and even driving tractors” for the first time the next. Fatimé laughs, explaining that getting everyone’s hands dirty – “mixing with mud,” she says – is all part of banishing the old stigma and showing that agriculture can be fun, social, and rewarding. From a starting group of 15 local youth, this program has grown over the years to train hundreds of young people from all over Chad and even other African countries. The bootcamp does not end with training; it creates community. Trainees leave with not only practical skills but also mentorship networks, and quite often a solid plan (or even test plot) for an Agri-project of their own. There is even an innovation challenge included: camper teams pitch innovative agribusiness concepts – for example, using renewable energy or new tech on farms – and winners get seed funding to launch their ventures. Through “AYA Bootcamp”, Fatimé has nurtured a pipeline of young innovators ready to launch “agribusiness enterprises”, each success story becoming proof that with backing and expertise, Africa’s fields really can bloom with opportunity.
Despite such success, Fatimé and Edna-Stella agree that a “mindset shift” is still needed among Africa’s youth. The discussion highlights how “social media and societal expectations” shape career aspirations today. Scrolling through Instagram or hearing family members, many young Africans get the message that success means a flashy office, a suit and tie, or a tech startup – something which sounds a lot more glamorous than working on a farm. Fatimé is not afraid to talk about this “perception problem”: agriculture, she thinks, has been marketed poorly to young people. She notes that it is ironic that the generation which could revolutionize farming is put off by outdated stereotypes. “Agribusiness is not just ploughing fields in the sun,” she says – it can be drones for precision farming, apps connecting farmers to markets, biotechnology, logistics, “innovation at every point”.
A recurring theme in this conversation is the “lack of role models in agribusiness”. Fatimé explains that the majority of young Africans are not falling into farming because they don’t frequently see “success stories” they can relate to. She herself did not have many role models for farming when she was growing up – most images of farmers were of old struggling farmers, rather than energetic young entrepreneurs. Fatimé and Edna-Stella explain that family expectations and social pressures too often shove intelligent young individuals towards medicine, engineering, or office jobs, whereas “farming is unfairly seen as low-prestige or unprofitable”. Aside from perception, practical barriers add to the hesitation – land access, modern technology, and financing can be hard for young people to secure, making the leap into agribusiness even more daunting. Fatimé emphasizes that is exactly why clear role models and support systems are crucial. When young people see role models to follow and know that there are resources they can access – whether irrigation machines or start-up loans – they are empowered to venture into agribusiness. She passionately contends that with the right support and examples of success, Africa’s young people would be able to harness agriculture’s immense potential, rather than shun it.
To turn these ideas into action, Fatimé shares the story of the “AYA Chad Bootcamp program” – an initiative she founded to train and support the next generation of agri-preneurs. She describes to Edna-Stella how the bootcamp is designed as a hands-on, intensive training program that gets young people engaged in both “business strategy and down-to-earth farming skills”. Unlike a traditional classroom, however, the bootcamp combines theory and practice: students might be learning how to craft a farm business plan or work with markets one day, and then they are actually “out in the field planting seeds, tending crops, and even driving tractors” for the first time the next. Fatimé laughs, explaining that getting everyone’s hands dirty – “mixing with mud,” she says – is all part of banishing the old stigma and showing that agriculture can be fun, social, and rewarding. From a starting group of 15 local youth, this program has grown over the years to train hundreds of young people from all over Chad and even other African countries. The bootcamp does not end with training; it creates community. Trainees leave with not only practical skills but also mentorship networks, and quite often a solid plan (or even test plot) for an Agri-project of their own. There is even an innovation challenge included: camper teams pitch innovative agribusiness concepts – for example, using renewable energy or new tech on farms – and winners get seed funding to launch their ventures. Through “AYA Bootcamp”, Fatimé has nurtured a pipeline of young innovators ready to launch “agribusiness enterprises”, each success story becoming proof that with backing and expertise, Africa’s fields really can bloom with opportunity.
Despite such success, Fatimé and Edna-Stella agree that a “mindset shift” is still needed among Africa’s youth. The discussion highlights how “social media and societal expectations” shape career aspirations today. Scrolling through Instagram or hearing family members, many young Africans get the message that success means a flashy office, a suit and tie, or a tech startup – something which sounds a lot more glamorous than working on a farm. Fatimé is not afraid to talk about this “perception problem”: agriculture, she thinks, has been marketed poorly to young people. She notes that it is ironic that the generation which could revolutionize farming is put off by outdated stereotypes. “Agribusiness is not just ploughing fields in the sun,” she says – it can be drones for precision farming, apps connecting farmers to markets, biotechnology, logistics, “innovation at every point”.