NAN-AE-8
Empowerment
Akure, April 21, 2017(NAN) The FADAMA III Additional Financing (AF) project says it will empower the youth across the country via the FADAMA Graduate Unemployment Youths Support Scheme (FADAMA GUYSS).
The FADAMA National Project Coordinator, Mr Tayo Adewumi, said this on Friday at a meeting with the Ondo State Federated Fadama Community Association (FFCA) in Akure.
Adewumi said that the project would encourage youths to embark on different agricultural enterprises in the country.
He noted that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and World Bank had approved the programme, which would commence in June.
“My coming to Ondo State is at the right time because we have a lot in stock this year for youths in the country.
“And I can assure you that what we are planning between now and June is for the youth programme to begin.
“What the World Bank wants us to do is to test-run it in about 10 states.
“But we are able to convince our minister and the World Bank country director to allow us to do it in at least 20 states.
“The project is designed to give the youth money or equipment, so as to enable them to start different agricultural enterprises on their own,’’ he said.
Adewumi said that the scheme was specifically designed for youths between the ages of 18 and 38 or at most, 40 years; particularly those who were unemployed and willing to go into the agriculture business.
He said that the initiative would engage between 200 and 300 youths in each state to begin with, adding that between 500 and 1,000 youths would be engaged in subsequent stages.
He, however, urged the youth to register online next week, adding that details of the programme would be aired on television and in other media organisations.
Adewumi said that the federal and state governments were working out modalities on how to create adequate public awareness on the need for farmers and herdsmen to coexist across the country.
“A lot of studies have been carried out and some of the herdsmen are farmers, who are covered under the FADAMA in some states like Kogi, Niger and Kano, among other parts of the North.
“A situation where you are a member of a group, you will find it difficult to go and destroy what you and other members of the group are putting together.
“Herdsmen need to understand that the land in Nigeria now is mainly for agriculture, and you will appreciate the fact that what we call `oil dollar’ is fast fading away,’’ he said.
Adewumi, therefore, urged farmers to work in tandem with the herdsmen so as to achieve maximum goals, insisting that agriculture was the only way to drive any nation forward.
Earlier, Mr Akin Olotu, Ondo State FFCA Chairman, lauded the FADAMA project for its landmark achievements across the country.
Olotu noted that FFCA’s efforts to secure a friendly credit portfolio for its members to revive their projects had not been quite easy, adding that the challenge had been a source of discouragement to the members.
He, however, said that the association, which had been able to secure some hectares of land from the Benin-Owena River Basin Development Authority for cluster farming, was facing some constraints due to the lack of tractors.
“We only have 13 tractors in the state and they are not in good order.
“We have been told that it will take over N1 million to repair them and FADAMA farmers in Ondo State need tractors,” he said.
Olotu called for the initiation of a special intervention programme for the teeming unemployed youths in the state that were eager to go into farming. (NAN)
OMA/MOL/OOK
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Edited by Mustapha Lamidi and Dayo Komolafe