FG, agric college train 500 unemployed graduates

The Federal Government, in collaboration with Federal College of Agriculture, Akure (FECA), has trained over 500 unemployed graduates in 16 states, to serve as mentors for future generation of farmers.

Provost of the college, Dr. Samson Odedina, who disclosed this at the opening ceremony of a five-day vocational training in modern agriculture on the campus, described the institution as the future of agriculture in the country.

According to him: “This present training is being held in tandem with our mandate to support government interest and investment in agriculture, which centres on job creation and employment for young people.

“The Federal Government is the sponsor of this training, as approved in our 2016 capital project, with the aim of training unemployed graduates on profitable agricultural value chain job opportunities.”

He added that the increasing demand for agricultural products and services in the society has widened the prospects in the sector for them, urging them to take the training and fill the gap.Odedina assure the trainees that they “have taken the first step to wealth and prosperity by seeking training that is key to best practice, cost reduction, increased efficiency and profitability, which will eventually make you the next agro-millionaires.”

He said: “The initiative is so successful that our students are already successful farmers while in school; and there is also less likelihood that they will abandon agriculture,” he said.

The Chairman of the occasion and member representing Akure South/North Federal Constituency, Afe Olowokere, said the scheme was a laudable initiative for the unemployed graduates, especially now that the nation is battling with economic recession.