WorldStage Newsonline-- The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced plans to introduce farming programme in secondary schools starting with 12 states from the six geo-political zones.
Speaking on Thursday in Abuja, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Schools Agriculture Programme, Dr. Baraka Sani explained that the programme will alleviate poverty, create jobs and close the age gap of the existing farmers
According to her, “In the pilot phase, students agriculture club will be established in selected schools from 12 states of the federation, two from each geo-political zone. Each club would compromise approximately 120 members.
“The multiplier effect of this programme in the respective household would definitely play great role in poverty eradication, help with nutrition and at the same time creation of jobs, especially at the rural level.
She explained that it will expose participants to various skills in the areas of agriculture.
On the goals of the programme, she said: “The programme is expected to develop positive attitude amongst youths towards agriculture, equip school leavers for job opportunities through practical teaching of skills for life, build entrepreneurship skills in students to run agriculture as a business, to offer the young farmers a voice and to create a stronger spirit of working together and unity amongst students.
Dr. Sani while urging youths to embrace the initiative said involvement in agriculture will reduce the rate of unemployment.
She advised youths not to depend on white collar job, saying “Farming can be done before the white collar job comes and it will reduce the agitation of the young ones that they are out of school and the government is not giving them job. Really, the white collar jobs are not meant for everybody.
“Some people are meant to work in the private sector or be self reliant, it depends on where your luck is and where you think you can do better but I tell you, even if you have the white collar job, it is better to acquire skill and agricultural skill is a good option.
“It is a skill for life, and it will give people better standard of living and make life more comfortable for everybody.
“The programme is expected to focus on food/vegetable production, including small scale irrigation where needed, fisheries and aqua-culture, poultry, nutrition, processing and packaging, apiarist training for honey production, livestock production and entrepreneurial programme for members of the club.”
On the challenges confronting the unity of the country, she identified poverty as threat to peace, saying “A high percentage of Nigerian population are vibrant and growing youths offering a strong human resource base. You will agree with me that poverty is a threat to peace and security. The aphorism that a hungry man is an angry man holds true. This demands that concerted effort be made by governments and stakeholders towards addressing the intractable social problems of inequality.”
She expressed optimism that the programme will change the perception of youths towards farming.
“The youths are shy of been identified as farmers, the youths are not comfortable to be addressed as farmers because they find the name not chic and you know at their age, they want to make it psychedelic and they want to make sure that they can tell their wives and girl friends that they are professionals, like an agric business entrepreneur rather than a farmer which they (youths) associate with hoes or maybe punishment,” sh said.
“We want to change their perception about agriculture, agriculture is a rich man’s job, it gives you money, it holds the society and it feeds the people.
“It is this new generation working together that can help to achieve national development, end world hunger, alleviate malnutrition, thus accelerating the attainment of our Millennium Development Goal.”
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