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Heaps of yams in a Nigeria market
BY KEHINDE EMMANUEL, ILORIN
Nigeria will achieve self-sufficiency in food production if only 30 percent of its population can engage in farming.
The executive director of Agriculture and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Ilorin, Dr Olufemi Oladunni made this assertion in Ilorin on Tuesday during a training programme on agribusiness for members of the Correspodents Chapel of the Kwara State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
The training programme formed part of activities marking the 2021 Press Week of the Correspodents Chapel.
The ARMTI executive director posited that mass farming by Nigerians, irrespective of class status will also force down the skyrocketing prices of foodstuff in the country.
He advised the government to encourage more Nigerians to go into farming by subsidising agricultural inputs and ensure that only qualitative and standard inputs are in the market for farmers to buy.
On the problem of insecurity, Oladunni advised government across board to engage the restive youths in productive ventures such as agriculture and agribusinesses.
For its part, he said ARMTI has been engaging in the training of youths in various areas of agribusiness to make them not only self- employed but employers of labour.
Oladunni added that at the end of the training programmes, ARMTI also provided starters packs valued at N200,000 to each of the beneficiaries to enable them start their own businesses.
He said the organisation has commenced the processes of opening regional offices in all the regions of the country with a view to bringing its services closer to all Nigerians.