The Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T) Ibadan in conjunction with House of Representatives committee on agriculture, have trained 147 students from colleges and institutions in the city in both poultry and piggery production.
The training which held at I.A.R&T Ibadan was organised by the committee headed by Linus Okorie in collaboration with IAR&T and Bora Agro Nigeria Limited. It had youths drawn from Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Ekiti and Ebonyi states respectively.
Speakers and organisers of the intensive training said it was put together to improve both poultry and piggery production in the country.
In his address, James Adediran, executive director, IAR&T, at the training tagged, “Training and Empowerment of Youth on Poultry and Piggery Production, Processing and Marketing’ maintained that poultry and piggery production are one of the important sub-sectors of the livestock industry in Nigeria.
Adediran, stated that poultry and piggery production, if given proper attention, would go a long way in reducing the problem of malnutrition associated with low animal protein intake among Nigerians.
He added that apart from this, improved poultry production and piggery will also contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria, and reduce the rate of unemployment in the country.
Ayodele Adegbite, executive director IAR&T who spoke through the deputy director of the institute, said “the workshop is timely and in line with the Federal Government initiative of empowering the youth to reduce the unemployment crisis in Nigeria through poultry production.”
“You are all aware that poultry production and piggery production in Nigeria is an important sub – sector of the livestock industry and the most practiced of all other livestock enterprise. It has contributed and is still contributing to the income of resource poor smallholder farmers,” he added.
Akinremi Feyisipo, Ibadan
