Lagos State partners with IITA to train13,548 youths in Agribusiness

The Lagos State Government says it is collaborating with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Africa Projects Development Centre (APDC) to train 13,548 youths in various agriculture value chains in a five-stage model within the next five years.

The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya gave this indication at the opening of the Young Africa Works Agribusiness Internship Orientation Training held at the Lagos State Agricultural Development Authority, Oko-Oba, Agege.

Ms. Olusanya explained that participants would be trained to build skills and secure fulfilling work opportunities within the agriculture value chains.

She said that ”the Young Africa Works Project of the IITA was a strategic approach to agribusiness training to arouse the interest of youths and teenagers in the agriculture space, to enable them make a decent living out of it.”

According to her, the IITA would in total provide skills to over 40,000 youths and enable 242,724 young women and men across Nigeria to secure dignified and fulfilling work in the agricultural value chains within the five-year model.

Programme targets
“I am particularly delighted to be in your midst today on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the Young Africa Works Agribusiness Internship Orientation Training being implemented by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Africa Projects Development Centre (APDC) in partnership with the Lagos State Government.

“I have been told that the Young Africa Works-IITA Project is an innovative approach to agribusiness training and start-up for Nigeria’s young people which is focused on improving the livelihoods of youths and teenagers by impacting on them the needed skills to do viable agribusiness within their communities.

“I have also been reliably informed that IITA seeks to provide skills to over 40,000 youths and enable 242,724 young women and men to secure dignified and fulfilling work in agricultural value chains in a five stage model within a period of five years. Specifically, for Lagos State, a total of 13,548 youths including 3,120 secondary school students are expected to participate in this Programme,” Commissioner said.

Quality partnership
Ms. Olusanya disclosed that the State Government was particularly interested in the partnership as it was in tune with the goal of recruiting more youth, teenagers, and women into the agriculture space, to replace the aging farmers as well as to increase food production, create employment opportunities, alleviate poverty, and boost income generation in the State.

She stated that programmes such as the Lagos Agripreneurship Programme (L.A.P), the Lagos Food Production Center, the Schools’ Agricultural Programme (S.A.P), the Summer School Programme, the World-Bank assisted FADAMA and APPEALS Projects have been carrying out series of trainings especially for the youth and women to ensure increased food security in the State and reduce its level of dependence on other States for food.

“When we talk about food security, we are talking along the lines of production, linkages to the consumers, productivity required of our farming community in order to see sustainability around what they do so that they can be motivated to put in more investment within that space. This will even enable  the financial sector to support and in the process we will see a bigger and more holistic food system in the State and Country at large.

“This training capacity building programme is a step in the right direction and it is in line with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s T.H.E.M.E.S Agenda where agriculture constitutes a major part of making Lagos a 21^st Century economy.

“What we see is that we have a huge population of youthful people most of whom are not gainfully employed and with the skill set deficiency required especially in a space like agriculture. With this initiative, we should be able to close the gap around the deficits we have in our food supply system,” she explained.

Novel initiative
The Commissioner explained that these initiatives of the State Government have indeed provided different platforms for youth engagement through training, capacity building and empowerment in different Agriculture value chain thus contributing to job creation, youth empowerment and poverty alleviation.

Ms. Olusanya commended the novel strategy being offered by the combined efforts of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)/Africa Projects Development Centre (APDC) to train the youths.

Mercy Chukwudiebere