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NRCRI boss urges youths to embrace agribusiness

By Gordy Udeajah, Umuahia
30 May 2017   |   4:28 am
The Executive Director of the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) in Umudike, Abia State, Dr. Julius Okonkwo has urged youths to embrace practical agriculture and farming rather than keep searching for white-collar jobs.

The training was organized by NRCRI in collaboration with Federal Government and the International Fund For Agricultural Development Assisted Value Chain Development Programme (FGN/IFAD VCDP).

The Executive Director of the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) in Umudike, Abia State, Dr. Julius Okonkwo has urged youths to embrace practical agriculture and farming rather than keep searching for white-collar jobs.

He noted that agribusiness has the potential to sustain youth entrepreneurs and make them employers of labour. Okonkwo who spoke recently at the closing session of the two weeks training on Cassava Stem Multiplication for 90 youth-farmers from six states of Anambra, Benue, Ebony, Niger, Ogun and Taraba, urged government at all levels to fund agriculture and not leave it to donor agencies alone.

The training was organized by NRCRI in collaboration with Federal Government and the International Fund For Agricultural Development Assisted Value Chain Development Programme (FGN/IFAD VCDP).

Represented by the NRCRI Director in charge of Tuber Crops Research, Dr. Emmanuel Nwachukwu, the Executive Director urged the trainees to put into practice the knowledge they acquired during the training and extend same to others in their states.

“You are advised to embrace practical agriculture that has now become very lucrative and sustainable and stop seeking white-collar employments that are no longer available,” he said.

While receiving their certificates, the trainees commended everyone that facilitated the training and made their stay conducive under the supervision of the NRCRI Director in charge of Farming Systems Research and Development, Dr. Godwin Asomugha.

The Trainees’ Spokesman, Gbegbe Donatus from Benue State said the the training had equipped them to go into agriculture and promised to extend what they learned  to others when they return to the base.

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