Osun Speaker advises civil servants, politicians to engage in farming


 Mr Najeem Salaam, the Speaker of Osun House of Assembly, has advised civil servants, politicians and youths to engage in large scale farming to boost the nation’s diversification agenda.
This is contained in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the speaker, Mr Goke Butika, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Osogbo on Wednesday.
The speaker was quoted as saying that, since the constitution of Nigeria does not against any class of persons from farming, the opportunity must be taken for good to boost food production.
Salaam said it was no longer fashionable for the country to be relying on mono source of income.
He enjoined the public schools to bring back school farming with dual purpose of exposing the pupils and students to the value of agriculture and also generating revenue for schools respectively.
The speaker said agriculture had returned to the front burner, and the younger generation should not be left behind.
He enjoined civil servants in the state to exploit farming as an alternate source of income.
Salaam said it was obvious that the money being generated from oil revenue was no longer coming, while the obligations at all fronts were no longer reducing.
"We have gotten to a phase in our history that alternate source of livelihood granted by the constitution has to be taken for good.
``This is because our demands are not reducing, while the pay cheque is no longer buoyant.
``So, I suggest that we should turn to agriculture in order to feed ourselves and provide raw materials for local industries, ‘’ the speaker said.
Salaam advised politicians in positions of trust to face the reality of the moment by engaging in large scale farming.
According to him, with the way the economy is skewing, political patronage would soon become a burden instead of shortcut to wealth. (NAN)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tomato disease outbreak: Institute appeals for research funding

The National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan, has appealed for funding to carry out research and create awareness on the tuta absoluta pest on tomatoes. The Institute’s Head of Vegetable Programme, Dr Olagorite Adetula, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Friday that there was an urgent need to tackle the problem to save the economy. Adetula said the institute needed money to do surveillance survey of the pest/damage, ascertain the impact of the damage and proffer solution for eradicating the pest. She appealed to the Federal Government to help the institute get pheromones to lure and trap the pests and distribute to farmers. ``Spraying insecticides is not the best, the pest has high production rate, some of them can escape while spraying it and they will be resistant to the insecticide thereby causing us more cost. ``The pheromones can be used for six to eight weeks before changing it, it is very effective, the pest has short life cycle, wit
Read more

10,000 women farmers to be engaged in ECOWAS rice project – official

Image
 Mr Richard Olafare, the President, Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN) says 10,000 women will be engaged in the recently inaugurated Rice Seed Up-Scaling Project. This is contained in a presentation on the project made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday. Olafare said 8,000 youths would also be engaged in the scaling project. According to him, the number of women and youths represented 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively of the 20,000 farmers that will participate in the project. NAN reports that the project is an initiative of the West Africa Seed Programme (WASP) in support of the ECOWAS Rice Offensive Programme that was inaugurated in 2014. Among other objectives, it is targeting the production of 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy rice for Nigeria by December 2017, using 1,200 certified seeds. The project is being implemented by SEEDAN in collaboration with the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Re
Read more

NEGPRO project can create more jobs with inclusion of meat production— Badmus

•Tuns Farm leads food safety, quality system audit The Chairman , Tuns Farms Nigeria, Asiwaju Olatunde Badmus, has disclosed that the proposed one million jobs expected to be created through the National Egg Production Scheme (NEGPRO) can be doubled if extended to meat production. He made this known when a team from the office of the Vice President, Federal Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Education at the company’s headquarters in Osogbo, the Osun state capital recently. Olatunde Badmus, while sharing the company’s experience on chicken inclusion in the Osun state’s school meal program which the company has been handling since the introduction of the school feeding program four years ago, said they can achieve so much more in terms of job creation through meat production “As we speak, six state governors among who are Kebbi and Borno, have signalled their government’s preparedness to look into this and have invited TUNS farm to their states to discuss modalities for
Read more