By ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
Bauchi State Government is to spend the over N285 million to train 1,000 youths in modern Agriculture expertise and methods particularly in cowpea, sweet potatoes and carrots production in the state.
The state governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, disclosed this when he received a delegation from the International Skills Acquisition Center (ISAC), led by the former Executive Secretary of the National Christian Pilgrims Welfare Commission, Pastor John Kennedy Opara, during a courtesy call at the Government House, on Friday.
He said that plans have been concluded in partnership with ISAC to train 50 youths from each of the 20 local government areas of the state.
Mohammed lamented that the country and the state in particular is suffering because of the method of food production which is unacceptable in European Standard because it is full of chemicals and impurity.
He said: “We have been trying and l have sent my Commissioner for Agriculture to one of the ISAC farms and l got a favourable report
“We are connected by our desire to use expertise, improved technology and other techniques so that we can provide employment for our teeming youths to increase production and yield as well as our GDP.
“Government cannot employ all these graduates and all those youth that are productive and are there without any direction.
“When l studied the proposal from ISAC, l discovered that we are connected by our own Agriculture policies that we launched so that we can incentivised their capabilities around our value chains in some of the crops that have been mentioned.”
The governor said that the state government will also leverage on the Central Bank of Nigeria policy
, NIRSAL Micro Finance bank and others to do the training without any pain “but we must know that there is no free lunch anywhere.”
He said that the Government will bear the cost of training and whoever goes there will be trained to explore his own personal capabilities so that he can contribute his own quota for the growth and development of Bauchi and Nigeria.
“We must work towards creating self employment and the safest way is through agriculture. We don’t have to go to Israel or Ethiopia we can see how they raised their GDP with their Micro economy through agriculture.
“Here is a state (Bauchi ) where we don’t have any IGR and we have to create it. I was in Germany and the Germany corporation wanted to come to Bauchi but couldn’t come because of the Coronavirus.
“I already have the vision of where l want to go I only need partners. We must produce and we must have up takers for production and the farmers must be assisted with techniques, farm implement and fertilizers,” he said.
Mohammed added that: “organic farming is the key and they are looking for it in Europe. We are going to other places in Brazil and the US. We have the plan but we don’t have the accreditation and the know-how. Maybe we are starting one year after we came into office but l think we should really seized the opportunity to partner with them so that by the time we bring other partners , the European Union or the USA.
“Farming is no longer a poverty stricken occupation but it is a business name we must do it as a business.”
He assured that the administration will continue to partner with organizations such as the CBN and ISAC to boost food production using organic method
He commended ISAC for training more than 10,000 youths in Agriculture across the country to increase the yield and boost food production.
Earlier while briefing the governor, Opara explained to the governor that ISAC is using the Israeli model and expertise to drive food production using modern technology.
He disclosed that many state governors have visited the centre saying that they run the best training centre in the country.
“When we finish training the students you don’t need to look for money to pay them but we will help them set up.ans they would be producing things,” he said.
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