Institute Trains Youth on Irrigation, Horticultural Farming
No fewer than 30 youths have been trained in irrigation and rain-fed horticultural farming by the National Horticultural Research Institute, NIHORT, Ibadan, capital of Oyo state, Southwestern, Nigeria.
The Executive Director, NIHORT, Dr Muhammed Atanda, disclosed this while speaking during the graduation ceremony of the Horticultural Academy for Youth, HAY, in Ibadan, capital of Oyo state.
The programme was organised by NIHORT under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
The NIHORT Executive Director urged Nigerian youths to strive to end poverty and unemployment through horticultural farming.
He commended the vision of the federal government geared at diversifying the economy of the nation for job creation and a thriving economy.
“We appreciate the support from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the programme coordinator, as well as members of the HAY team, for the success recorded.
“What initially looked impossible has become a success,” Atanda said.
He said the reduction of poverty and provision of food security could be absolutely tackled through horticulture.
”This is because it can create more employment out of all the cropping systems available, and it has a high turnover rate.”
Atanda, however, lamented the low vegetable per capita consumption in Nigeria, adding that the only way to enhance it for good and healthy living was horticulture cultivation.
“This should be mainly vegetables, which will also improve income generation.”
Speaking further on the programme, the NIHORT Executive Director said 30 unemployed youths were selected and trained from different Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Oyo State.
He said this was based on the mandate given by the federal government through the federal ministry.
“The training was in both the irrigated and rain-fed farming system, low land and up land farming systems for vegetables.
“We tutored, mentored, and monitored the participants.
“We have recorded tremendous success for this first year, and we hope to continue in that line,” Atanda said.
He added that the institute would scale up what it has been doing in the last five years throughout the geo-political zones with the continued support of government.
“More than 15,000 women and youths had been trained through this.”
Atanda further said the next stage would be to reduce post-harvest losses through technology and value addition developed by the institute.
In an interview, Dr Olutola Oyedele, Coordinator of the HAY programme and Director of Research at NIHORT, said the pilot stage of the programme was successful.
”Going forward, more youths will be engaged to replace the ageing farming population to ensure food security,” she said.
Oyedele stressed the immense opportunities in horticultural farming and how some of the participants in the programme were already working to impact the nation through the knowledge gained.
“If we have more funds for this programme, then we can bring in more youths. Because, at the moment, the programme has supplied all the production inputs to all the trainees, and we also gave them some monthly stipends to cushion the transport cost,” she said.
In his goodwill message, the Oyo State Commissioner for Trade and Industry, Mr Ademola Ojo, represented by a director in the ministry, Mrs Majeedat Olanrewaju, congratulated the HAY programme graduates.
He charged them to make judicious use of the knowledge gained, adding that they can access credit facilities from the agency to scale up their businesses.
Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Mr Daniel Nwagwu and Mrs Oladunni Adeoti both appreciated the government and NIHORT for the opportunity given to them.
They assured that they also would impact others with the knowledge.
NAN/Shakirat Sadiq
