FECA provost tasks militants on developing agric

The Provost of Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State (FECA), Dr. Samson Adeola Odedina, has urged ex-militants to channel their zeal and doggedness to revolutionise agriculture in the country. 

Odedina, stated this in Akure, at the opening ceremony of a three-week Amnesty Empowerment Programme for 30 participants, chosen from the Niger Delta for training on pig production. 

According to him: “the delegates from Amnesty family, ex-militants, have agreed to embrace agriculture; they have agreed to embrace one of the most lucrative agribusinesses-pig production enterprise and its numerous value chain opportunities.

“We have the skills and capacity to work with the delegates from the Amnesty Programme to turn guns (AK 47) into sprayers, armoured tanks into ploughs and harrows; trenches into animal pens.”He said the training, in partnership with Ciibex Solution Nigeria Ltd and Maximum Insight Global Services, was borne out of the leading roles played by the institution in training Nigerians on global best practices and value chain opportunities in agriculture. 

The Provost added that the college will also “conduct specialised training in contract farming and economics of agricultural production and processing for national and international development projects and investors.”

Odedina, who lauded Federal Ministry of Agriculture for supporting the college in its pioneering roles in agricultural value chain opportunities, emphasised that “Militancy is what we need in agriculture to produce the desired results for economic prosperity.”

He urged them to utilise the opportunities by converting their potentials and ‘militancy’ into agriculture for huge results, revealing that other security agencies like the Nigerian Army do same to produce large percentage of food in the country.