Odedina Samson Adeola is the provost of Federal College of Agriculture (FECA), Akure, Ondo state. Adeola in this interview with journalists in Lagos spoke about FECA and how the adoption of technology and innovation will help attract youth into agriculture. JOSEPHINE OKOJIE was there. Excerpts:
Can you tell us about FECA?
The Federal College of Agriculture, Akure (FECA) is one of the oldest institutions in Nigeria and we are the first higher institution in Ondo state. We are 60 years old and we award both OND and HND. What we do in colleges of agriculture is same thing that is done in the polytechnics. We offer National Diploma (ND)and Higher National Diploma (HND) and we are under the same regulatory body that award ND in polytechnics and the same body that award HND as well. Nigeria has 45 Colleges of agriculture in the country and FECA is amongst the 11 that belongs to the Federal Government while the remaining are state owned. The educational sector in Nigeria recognises three tertiary institutions, the University, Polytechnic and College of Education and that is not good for agriculture. We have close to 400,000 youths in about 45 colleges of agriculture in Nigeria currently.
Since you became the provost, what have you done to transform FECA?
I have done quite some things to transform the institution since I became provost. The school was established in 1957 on a landmass area of about 1,112 hectares. When I came into office by January 1, 2015, I met only 350 hectares, meaning 600 hectares have already been stolen by land grabbers. Also, upon resumption of office I met on my table a judgement by the Ondo state high court saying that about 75 hectares have been awarded to an individual, leaving the college with about 15 percent of the original landmass area of the school. With the help from both the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Ondo state government, all that is begin resolved now.
Also, the college had no internet presence when I came in as the provost. People have to travel from afar to the school to purchase the forms for admission. Infrastructural development was near zero, the environment was bushy and I met about 220 students on campus. But today, all that have changed. We now have a website and close to about 1,000 students currently. Before now, people were bringing their wards and when they reach the gate they will turn back because the environment was not accommodating then but now I get calls from people who want me to use long leg to get their wards admitted into the college.
For 35 years, before I came in as provost we have not seen any traditional ruler, any governor and any minister but last year alone, the Governor of Ondo state visited us twice and appointed the college as the sole trainer of the 18,000 youths, the state intends to empower through agriculture.
And again, for the first time in 17 years, we got approval to run five new courses including computer science, fishery and some other courses. Now we are online. If you want to purchase your form, you do not need to come to our college, we are the same level with other institutions so that youth everywhere can see our institution as viable option.
For the first time in so many years, government agenda and mandate happened to be similar to our own mandate but what we do is to produce graduates who on their own practice agriculture responsibly in such a way that they will be making profits and other youths can follow suit. Every month, we have investors forum and we have two weeks for three vocational programs where we teach three things: job opportunities in various agricultural value chains, where individuals can key into and how to reduce cost of production, lastly, network collaboration, marketing and also a post training linkage centre where you can always come back to us for credit linkage, marketing, technology, amongst others. When I came in as a provost, I came in with a five year plan. For first year – the plan was to engage my colleagues in planning, second year – we improve our infrastructures and structure, third year, we introduced new courses, Fourth year – cement relationship with stakeholders and the fifth year – I would be finishing my plans and the school is now up to run. This is currently my third year at the institution. Right now, everybody wants the school to consult for them, our lecturers are very busy. Now if you come for consultancy or advice at the institution, it is final year students that will attend to you.
We are the leader in the continent for this kind of approach to training youths in various agricultural value chains. We now received visitors from Malawi, Ghana, from Anambra polytechnic, UAE and university of Nsukka. Everybody wants to study this template of engaging youths in profitable agriculture. We train youths in our schools adopted villages and secondary schools. So, we have our projects on biogas where we use animal brawl as an alternative to power supply for home use. We have been demonstrating that in communities and some schools and we have been successful in doing that for a while now.
Is the government doing enough to engage youths in agriculture?
I think the government is trying in the area of supporting institutions like FECA because everything we have been doing in terms of youth training in agriculture is through the funding and support we get from them. The issue now is the private players to also take it further. There is need for collaborations between the governments at all levels and the private sector to engage more youth in agriculture.
What are those things the government needs to do to motivate youths into agriculture?
The government needs to develop the country’s agriculture using technology. Youth can only find agriculture attractive when it involves technology and innovation. The government needs to create that world for them and allow them to live there. Everything we do now is based on ICT and technology. This way, agriculture becomes more attractive to youths. We need innovation to do farming differently from the older generation of farmers who were mostly entangled in poverty. Government must give assistance to finance and land. No youth wants to go to the rural areas to take up farming because the infrastructures there are poor. The government must provide key infrastructural facilities so that youth can take up agric as a profession. Youth need mechanisation, innovative ways to do agriculture, finance, infrastructure and a guaranteed market for their produce.
How do you final year students at FECA access funds and is there any training attached in this regard?
For over 30 years now, we have been doing training for farmers and we are doing the valuation for them as well. Most farmers will tell you that lack of finance is their major problem. That is not it. It is not the issue of money but interest. Every part of the training in agriculture is linked to credit. Feasibility study is part of it and ways to source for finance is part of the training we give to our final year students. We train them on three things they need to survive in agriculture. First, on how to increase their yield per hectare, it not about finance only, they need to know how to reduce the cost of production and get the right information about marketing because the opportunity now we have in the food and agribusiness cannot be tapped. For instance, there a company very close to us that needs about 100 tons of fresh cassava roots, that is a huge opportunity for the youths. We would give out such information to our final year students that have farms. There are lots of value chain opportunities in supply, transport, quality control and marketing and we are not tapping into it because we lack such information.
