Agriculture
THE National President of Youths for Agriculture Nigeria (YFA), Mr. Timothy Onwurah, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) to release funds to farmers in the country.
Onwurah, who is the founder of the organization, said that the release of funds to the farmers to carry out farming activities to boost food security and create employment for youths.
He made the appeal on Thursday in Abuja at the inauguration of the Youths for Agriculture Nigeria Agro-Industrial Farm Estate Programme and 90 days Agribusiness Exhibition in partnership with FRANKMEK Global Services.
He said that a lot of people had good intentions on how to boost agriculture but the problem was funding, “there is a need for CBN to raise the agricultural fund for farmers that need it without stress.
“Over the years so many farmers have tried to access the fund but to no avail because of the requirements that most farmers could not meet up with”
He said the NGO had about two million youths registered to be trained on various agricultural practices to provide food security in the country and generate wealth by creating employment for the youths and women.
According to him, the NGO has been in existence for 17 years and has gone round the 36 states of the federation to ensure that farmlands are provided for those willing to engage in the Agric practice.
He said the NGO had partnered with different companies to train and empower the two million youths on various agricultural produce in all its value chains.
Onwurah, however, appealed to youths, government workers and politicians to support the initiative so as to achieve good results in food production, procession and packaging for both internal and external use.
He said that some of the basic training would be free and this included oil palm production, cashew, millet, wheat, tomatoes, cassava, banana/ plantain, Ginger/Garlic, poultry, sheep/Goat farming, fish production Turmeric farming, Milk production, veterinary services and Feed formulation/ compounding among others.
Alhaji Ahmed Dokali, District Head of Karish, commended the NGO and urged them to sustain the program saying in the time past people have made promised of such but implementation was the problem.
He said there was a need for the NGO to see that program was taken to those in the rural areas because that was where the real farming takes place.
“If the program is a success the issues of unemployment will be a thing of the past as youths will no longer go for white-collar jobs,” he said.
He, therefore, appealed to the government to release funds to farmers to boost their production.
Mrs Nweke Ihechere, who represented the Director Agricultural Extension, Mr Frank Satumari, commended the NGO and promised to support to ensure that the program would not fail.
She said that the department was known for training and empowering of youths, women in agricultural trade to create employment and generate good food for Nigerians (NAN).
– Mar. 18, 2021 @ 17:38 GMT
Tags: Food security : NGO urges FG to release funds to farmers
