From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Executive Secretary of the National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), Prince Paul Ikonne, has announced the prompt commencement of the Institute of Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship across the country.
Ikonne stated that the institute aims to support the growth and development of agribusiness by transforming it into a modern and appealing career path for young people. It will achieve this through a combination of practical training, a specialised curriculum, cutting-edge technology, and entrepreneurial education in agribusiness and agronomic practices.
In a statement yesterday, he said this will “in turn, translate to the country being better positioned to attain food security and ensuring a stable and sufficient food supply for the nation, in line with President Bola Tinubu’s food security agenda.
“As Nigeria faces the pressing challenge of an ageing population of farmers, the NALDA Institute targets catching youngsters early in life, from primary to tertiary level, by introducing them to agribusiness early, while also serving as a platform for professional research.”
Read also: Food security: NALDA takes agric empowerment scheme, data capturing to Lagos, Nasarawa
According to him, the institute will commence in September in Aba, Abia State. The campus is fully equipped with the facilities needed to build a formidable school of agribusiness.
“The institute in Aba boasts a completed 600-capacity student sports complex, two administrative blocks, libraries and laboratories, a clinic, nine solar-powered boreholes, a 30-room hostel, and four classroom blocks with a total of 24 classrooms.
“The Aba Campus also has a 50,000-capacity fish pond, poultry pens, a 5,000-capacity snail house, a fish hatchery, 50 grasscutter pens, crop fields, three tractors, handheld harvesters, and nine boreholes to cater to the needs of both the farm and the institute.
“We also came up with the NALDA Institute of Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship, which has the approval of Mr President. And today, that school is taking off in September.
“We have students that are going to start in September; the one in Abia is fully ready and commencing the 2024/2025 academic session this September.
“The one in Ogun is 99% complete, and they will commence the academic session by next year. The institute in Katsina is 89% complete.
“So, these are projects that we initiated with the idea and knowledge that if we don’t catch them young into agriculture, agricultural production, and agribusiness, Nigeria will lose farmers as the current generation of farmers are ageing and retiring.
“This is why we came up with the NALDA Institute of Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship, from primary to secondary to OND level.”
While reeling out NALDA’s achievements in the four years of his time as Executive Secretary, Ikonne said he was proud of how far the authority has come.
Reminiscing on how he was handed NALDA to resuscitate in 2020, without an office or staff to work with, Ikonne said from reclaiming NALDA’s lands to partnering with states to empower youths across the country, progress was made one step at a time.
Additionally, in a bid to engage Nigerians in agribusiness, he said the institute currently runs government-approved certificate courses in fishery, poultry, snail farming, and hatchery management.
“While this will, most importantly, keep our youths gainfully self-employed, it is also a good source of generating revenue for the institute. We have experienced professionals on the ground with specialised resources to achieve this.”
“This training is not just theoretical, it is both theoretical and practical, as the institute has the poultry, hatchery, snail farming, and fishery units ready. We also intend for this initiative to cut across all states of the country.”
Furthermore, Ikonne stated that NALDA embarked on the distribution of inputs such as seeds, herbicides, and pesticides, enough for the cultivation of one hectare of farmland across the country.
“Beneficiaries of the initiative, which consists mainly of women and youth, were trained on best agronomic practices for improved yields, with over 10 states benefitting so far.
“NALDA also embarked on seed distribution. This initiative began last year; we started distributing inputs where we give out 10kg bags that will help farmers to cultivate a hectare fully, with all the inputs required for the cultivation of maize, rice, and beans.”
Aside from seeds, Ikonne noted that the authority also provided poultry start-up packs to women in some states across the country.
Speaking on NALDA’s mechanisation drive, Ikonne said the authority has acquired five drones for aerial mapping and the spraying of herbicides and pesticides.
“We have drones. You know, mechanisation is key in agriculture, making it easy. We have about five drones for aerial mapping and for spraying fertilisers and herbicides.
“So these are equipment that we have acquired outside of our tractors, combine harvesters, that we are using for large production. In states like Benue, we harvested from 200 hectares of rice last season.”
Ikonne also disclosed that NALDA is currently collating data on farmers in Nigeria to ensure a comprehensive database of farmers and also ensure that only genuine farmers get the needed government support.
“Now, one critical thing that we have achieved here in NALDA is creating the databank of farmers. Nigeria has never had a farmer-based databank. So every year, agricultural planning becomes a challenge because you don’t know who you’re planning for.
“So now that I came up with that concept and partnered with DSS to create a databank, we have the server for capturing real farmers from various local governments, and that process is ongoing.
“We have started capturing them as we give them input; we capture them and capture their land,” he said.
On the establishment of NALDA Integrated Farm Estates, Ikonne said the farm estates were established to create job opportunities along the agricultural value chain, from production and processing to marketing.
He said so far, NALDA farm estates have been established in Katsina, Imo, and Borno states.
He noted that the estate in Borno State was used to resettle returning internally displaced persons (IDPs) and engage them gainfully in agriculture.
“In Borno State, we completed another big farm estate with housing, which was fully furnished; then those houses were allocated to the IDPs who are returning to the state. We provided them with livestock for them to go into animal production, as well as fingerlings, and that is purely in Borno State.
“In Imo State, we were also able to resuscitate the Acharubo farm estate that also provided an opportunity for a lot of youths—the youth from the community where the farm estates are located.”
Read also: Agenda for Imo State’s new commissioner for water resources