Horti Nigeria reiterates resolve to stimulate youth interest in Agric

The Horti Nigeria, a Dutch funded agricultural programme, has reiterated its resolve to raise awareness and stimulate youth interest in agriculture, as part of moves to address food crisis in the country.

This was disclosed by the Southwest Inclusive Entrepreneurial Assistant, International Fertiliser Development Centre, Horti Nigeria programme, Benedict Ukpukpen, during a youth inclusive agricultural training organised by the firm, to celebrate this year’s International Youth Day, held at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State, with the theme: “Youth, Digital Adoption and Innovation.”

Ukpukpen said: “The truth is that the young ones form the largest percentage in Africa and therefore a very strong and potent force to bring about the change we so much desire in food production and value chain.

“So, we deemed it fit that with platforms like this and the support Horti Nigeria is providing for farmers in the country, we can further encourage the young ones to embrace agriculture, it is what they will do and make good money.

“We want to tell them that agriculture is not dirty and that there is a lot they can do within the agricultural value chain to help in tackling hunger, unemployment and poverty, especially with the adoption of modern technologies.”

Ukpukpen said agricultural programme operates in four states – Kano and Kaduna, where about 64,000 smallholder farmers have been supported, while over 2,000 entrepreneurial farmers in Oyo and Ogun have also being supported to achieve increase yield in tomatoes, pepper, okra, sweetcorn, cabbage among others.

The Communication Manager, Heifer International Nigeria, Chuba Ezeigwe, also urged the youth to leverage on the world of advancement in technology to change the face of agricultural practice in the country.

Ezeigwe emphasised that the young ones must take the lead in tech enabled solutions to revolutionise agricultural production and enhance food value chain in the country. He said: “We have a project – Agriculture, Youth and Technology (AYUTECH), where we provide financial incentives, mentorship guidance and technical support to young people across Africa including Nigeria.

“All that they have to do is to have interesting and scalable agritech solutions, we will then support the development of such solutions into what is available commercially and ensure that such agritech solutions begin to make impacts and affect the small holder farmers.

“We have $40,000 the agrictech startups led by young people in Nigeria can benefit from yearly and on the continental level, we have about $1.5m that could be accessed yearly.”

A Professor of Horticulture at FUNAAB, Isaac Ayelagbe said the shout of hunger in the country is real and embarrassing enough for a well endowed nation like Nigeria not to be able to feed its teeming populace.

He linked the current food crisis to poor policies, lack of political will, oppressive agricultural practices driven by hoes and cutlass among others. He said: “It is a sorry and embarrassing situation that we can’t not feed ourselves, however, it is not beyond irredeemable once we are ready to be intentional.

“Every nation of repute solves its food production challenge and I believe that if there is strong will to do it, we can begin the harvest earlier than we imagine, once we are ready to deploy the resources, the right policies, the funding and monitor it, we should be on our way to achieving food security.”