IFAD, IITA, AfricaRice partner ABUAD to train 1, 000 on agribusiness

By Gbenga Sodeinde, Ado Ekiti

The International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and AfricaRice have entered into a three- year partnership with the Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) to train 1, 000 youth in agricultural techniques.

The partnering agencies said the essence of the programme is to tackle youth unemployment in Nigeria and encourage the youth to perceive farming as a profitable business.

This disclosure was made at a session to unveil the partnership in ABUAD on Monday during the flag off of the IFAD project inception workshop tagged: “Youth empowerment in agribusiness and sustainable agriculture” held in the university.

IFAD Technical Specialist and leader of the team, Dr. Malu Muia Ndavi, said the agencies are partnering the institution because of their deep concerns for job creation in Nigeria and Africa, having realised that youth unemployment is Africa’s major challenge .

He said with the trend of joblessness in Africa and its attending consequences, all hands must be on the deck to tackle the phenomenon and charged African nations to re-examine, and re-jig their education modules as well as curricular to make it be at par with challenges of the 21st century.

“Let me assure you, we will listen to the modalities set by ABUAD to train 1, 000 youth within two months in modern farming. We are going to ensure that every commitment we make shall be delivered and this will mark the beginning of a longstanding partnership with this university,” he added.

The university’s founder, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), who spoke about the high propensity for white collar jobs among youth, noted that the mentality of an average Nigerian is that only white collar jobs are good.

“When white men introduced the civil service, the civil servants then lived like gods, so were trained wrongly. They never emphasized that farming was a good profession.

“But, somebody must correct this wrong impression and IFAD and ABUAD must be ready to do this. We must research and bring new innovations to agriculture and modernise farming,” he said.

Babalola stated that for a university to be great, it has to be a training ground for all categories of people, especially farmers, adding that “apart from that, it has to be secured and must be fully residential because the students must be good in learning and character

“And if they go away, how do you know their characters? If a student is taking cannabis, how do you monitor him? How do you monitor his punctuality? This is the advantage of a university like ours.

“Here in ABUAD, we learn even at night, no university does that in Nigeria. Education without functionality is nothing. Some lecturers are still using the note they used 35 years ago. Lecturers in ABUAD adopt the newest system of teaching methodology and that is why our students are doing well.”

To underscore the value he places on farming, Babalola said if he has the second chance of coming to this world that he will embrace farming as a profession.

He stated further that “this is because I was born in the farm by a farmer and where I learnt everything that gave me these achievements today. In the olden days, people were committed to farming because nobody was coming to kill or kidnap you on the farm.

“There was no reason for them to go to hospital; I myself have never gone to any hospital for treatment because we were with nature and once you are with nature you will be healthy.”