Spirited efforts are being made by the Kogi State Government to encourage youths in the state to embrace agriculture.
Special Adviser to the governor on youth empowerment, sports and student affairs, Comrade MD Eseyin, made this known while delivering a keynote speech on behalf of the governor at the Nigerian Youth Parliament, North Central, yesterday.
According to Eseyin, Kogi state government has taken steps to get new and appropriate tools and farming practices into the hands of farming youths. This, he said, includes improved seeds and access to better soil, water, and livestock solutions.
He stressed that the new drive by the state government to promote agribusiness among her youth is predicated on the New Direction Blueprint of Governor Yahaya Bello.
Eseyin assured that government is prepared to help farmers improve their storage and post-harvest activities, meet quality and quantity commitments, link to large-scale and reliable markets, and establish partnerships with buyers, processors, and farmers’ organizations.
He lamented Nigeria’s over-reliance on oil over the years with little attention apportioned to agriculture. He argues that as a nation, Nigeria has done herself much injustice by depending on oil, abandoning agriculture and under-utilizing the abundant land resources in the country.
“It is on record that this great country used to be a land of plenty and abundance, when groundnut pyramids from the North was pride of our country, cocoa from the west was cynosure of our fore-bearers and when we travel down the East and South, fishing and rubber production used to be our beholding beauty; what has happened to this great country of plenty? When we think critically we would discover that we lost the path the day we began to see Agriculture as a tedious commitment and crude oil resurgence as a lease and a new bride, little did we know that a time is coming when crude oil will be very crude to this great nation”, he said.
“When youths who embrace farming grow more food and earn more income, they are better, able and more reliable to feed themselves and their families, send their children to school, provide for their family’s health, and invest in their farms. This makes their communities economically stronger and more stable.
