School Farming: Oyo State Trains Teachers On Soiless/Hydroponic Farming

The Oyo State Government, through its Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, has trained 58 pre-vocational studies teachers on soiless /hydroponic farming on skill acquisition, in its bid to resuscitate farming in public schools.

The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Salihu Adelabu, said that the training will enable the teachers to instill entrepreneural skills in the area of agriculture into their students who will in turn become agropreneurs.

During a one-day Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop, held in Ibadan, the state capital, Adelabu explained that the 58 trained teachers will be the ones to train other agricultural science teachers across the 33 Local Government Areas of the state.

The commissioner revealed that the essence of the training is that the government is resuscitating school farming and wants to catch the children young, therefore coming up with hydroponic farming in all secondary schools in the state.

He said: “What do I mean by hydroponic farming? It’s soiless farming. If you see what is going on in the area of agricultural development worldwide, nobody is going to the thick bush farming again. They do their farming activities in the greenhouse, where water conservation is regulated, temperature is regulated, the pest, and the weed control is properly managed.

“And this often increases the yield. What we intend to achieve is to make all our students agropreneurs. We want them to develop entrepreneurial skills in the area of agriculture. And many of them can eventually become millionaires,”Adelabu asserted.

The commissioner noted that with hydroponic farming skills, the students will not need to seek jobs after graduation but rather be recruiting people, saying they can start small with money as little as N5,000, N10,000, or N20,000, and eventually expand and plant very big.

He state that “these children can start after graduation. Even while in school, some of them can start practicing hydroponic farming, and all the skills involved. This is what we want the teacher to start putting these children through before they finish their NECO or WAEC Examination.”

In her remarks, the Director of Basic Education in the ministry, Mrs Olabode Abosede, called on agricultural science teachers in public schools to endeavor to introduce their students to practical aspects of the subject in due course to get the desired result.

She explained that the good thing about school farming that the government is bringing back on board is the introduction of soiless farming, which she described as a modern way of farming, encouraging teachers of agricultural science in various schools, particularly schools with limited farm land, to embrace the initiative.

Abosede lauded the teachers for their commitment to the training, noting that the ministry would put in place a monitoring team for periodic visits to the schools and project evaluation.