Olatunji Akomolafe, founder, Village Pioneer Project (VPP) has called on government at all levels to invest massively in agriculture to help address the country’s rising unemployment rate.
Akomolafe made this assertion recently while playing host to students of Oro Community High School, who were on the farm for excursion.
“When I returned from Germany in 1984, the youth unemployment was on the rise in the country and I thought the only way to combat youth unemployment, youth hopelessness, and joblessness was to create an avenue for training, production and research in agriculture where they will be able to learn the possibilities to be self-reliant,” Akomolafe said.
“Agriculture is the most potent tool to combat the unemployment in Nigeria. It is important to choose integrated agriculture, which is having many agricultural activities together, starting from cultivation, multiplication, production processing, and utilization of waste to achieve the entire recycling of agricultural products. This is what we have been doing to reduce unemployment in the last 34 years,” he further said.
He noted that agriculture is the most potent tool that can generate employment opportunities to the unemployed graduates, urging government to make the environment conducive for agribusinesses to thrive.
He said his Village Pioneer Project; a non-government organisation was created 34 years ago to address the issue of youth employment in the country. He explained it was put together to exposed young Nigerians to agribusiness after their education and also trained them on the need to be self-reliant.
While saying that over 3,000 youths had been trained in various aspects of agribusinesses by the organisation, which had in turn made them financially independent, added that agriculture, is the future of the country.
Akinyemi Tayo, an agric teacher said the visit at the farm was arranged to expose the students to practical things they had been taught in the class in the agricultural science.
He noted that as they prepare for their senior School Examination, it would help the students in no small measure.
One of the students, Mamukuyomi Funmilayo expressed her delight for being part of the visit, saying it was an eye opener outside the walls of their classroom.
Funmilayo,who spoke on behalf of her colleagues said they would consider embracing agriculture after their examination as a result of the available opportunities to make them self-reliant.
Yomi Ayeleso Akure
