His interest and passion for tilling the land and reaping bountifully from nature’s gift to mankind from the bowels of the earth dated back to our childhood days..
He was passionate about farming, he loved the farms during our adolescent years, unlike yours truly who was full of words and little energy for tilling the land. It was the only cause of little disagreement between an otherwise very loving and amiable gentleman father and son.
Elder Toyin Afolayan has grown a childhood interest and passion into a thriving enterprise. In my beloved community of Okeya-Ipo, Elder Afolayan leads the pack amongst the vibrant farming community. He breaths and sleeps farming. Farming is his life.
Raise a topic on different areas of farming- be it plants cultivation or animal husbandry- and you have a great deal of listening to do in the presence of Baba Ife, as he is affectionately referred to in our community.
Our friendship and respect for each other has remained unaffected and unaltered by the challenges of life and the struggle to excel which have taken the two friends through different routes to different destinations in life.
Any time yours sincerely arrives his beloved community, such visits, even if it’s a whistle stop one, is not complete without a brief moment with the reputed farmer.
When, on my recent visit in which Elder Toyin treated the yams and the yams economics topic in a comprehensive manner, I never knew the ‘class’ would end in yours truly becoming the proud owner of seven big tubers of new yam.
Thanks so much, my dear friend, A a ro ti emii lagbara Olorun. You will be around to farm again next year and beyond by the grace of God.
My new yam gifts from Elder Afolayan..
