The Ondo state government has concluded plans to set up farm clusters and 2,000 hectares of farmland in each senatorial district of the state to boost food security.

Rotimi Akinsola, the senior special assistant to the governor on agriculture and agric business, said this on Saturday at the Soilless Farm Lab event in Ogun.

Mr Akinsola, a guest speaker at the Soilless Farmlab’s International Mother Language Day, also used the opportunity to check on the performance of 10 Ondo state candidates who are undergoing training at the farmlab.

“We have a project that we need them to get involved in, our cluster programme and senatorial farms; we are going to need them to come and show us what they have learnt here.

“In Ondo state, with the new administration, we are starting with an executive plan on agro-business whereby we are setting up the structure of farms both senatorial and cluster farming.

“The senatorial farms are going to be 2,000 hectares of farm in each senatorial district and to be run by the private sector,” he said.

He noted that the training of the youth on best agricultural practices would be a great advantage to the people of Ondo state.

He added that after they have acquired the right skills and knowledge from the Soilless Farm Lab they would be integrated with local farmers of the state.

He noted that the training would, in turn, help the executive moves in revolutionising the states’s agriculture drive.

He noted that the Enterprise for Youth in Agriculture (EYiA) project by Mastercard Foundation was designed for youths, both undergraduates and graduates.

“We need this kind of structure, and since we don’t have it yet, we can bring young ones to get the training, then come home and get involved in what we are doing.

“We are doing a new structure in agriculture in Ondo state, and we are moving into a new setting, we are bringing agric into the communities.

“So, we will need communities and young ones to come into agriculture fully. We need people with experience, and that is why we sent our youths here to get the experience.

‘They have been here for a month, we are expecting that by the end of the programme, they will come home and get other youths involved in what they have learnt here,” he said.

He, however, encouraged them to be focused and promised to provide them with the needed support.

Mr Akinsola urged youths to embrace agriculture and be focused on boosting food security in the country.

He stressed the importance of the EYiA project to the state, disclosing that the state government would send 100 youths for the next batch of the programme in April.

“Our main aim is to have enough students here and similarly have a discussion with Mastercard so that when we have the facilities similar to this, they can come and partner with us so that we can train our youths in this manner,” he said.

Also speaking, Joy Obodo, the admin officer, Soilless Farmlab, noted the overall objective of the initiative was to raise agric entrepreneurs through the EYiA project.

Ms Obodo said over 1,000 youths across the country were currently undergoing training on modern technological knowledge of farming, agricultural business and marketing at the farmlab.

“We have been getting positive outcomes from the past graduating students; they have gotten a lot of job opportunities via the skills they acquired here.

“So, there have been a lot of impact stories from this ongoing programme,” she said.

Blessing Ebahodaghe and Oluwatobi Oni, beneficiaries from Ondo state, thanked the state government for the opportunity to be part of the programme.

They promised to be focused and to share the knowledge acquired with other youths in the state.

(NAN)