Oyo resuscitates school farming to boost agricultural productivity

…trains 58 teachers on soiless farming

As part of efforts to resuscitate farming in public schools in order to tackle food insecurity in the State, the Oyo State Government is catching youths younger in its drive to ensure food security in Oyo with the training of 58 teachers on soiless/ hydroponic farming practice and other relevant agricultural skills acquisition.

Running the school farming through State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the State Government said the training would enable the teachers to instill entrepreneurial skills in youths in the area of agriculture, agricultural practice and agribusiness, making the students become agropreneurs.

Salihu Adelabu, Professor and Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, while speaking at a day training of trainers (ToT) Workshop, held at Wesley College of Science, Elekuro, Ibadan, explained that 58 trained teachers would be the ones to train other Agricultural Science teachers across the 33 Local Government Areas of Oyo State.

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He said, “The essence of this training is that we are going back to the farm. We are resuscitating the school farming and we want to catch the children so young. And we are coming up with a hydroponic farming this time around in all our secondary schools.

“What do I mean by hydroponic farming, It’s a soiless farming, if you see what is going on in the area of agricultural development worldwide, nobody is going to the thick bush farming again, what they they do , they do their farming activities in the greenhouse, where water conservation is regulated, temperature is regulated, the pest, and the weed control is properly managed.

“And this often increases the yield, so ,we are now bringing selected teachers across the thirty-three-local governments in Oyo State to train them and to go back to train others and encourage them to go back to the farm in our secondary schools. So, that’s the essence.

“What we intend to achieve is to make all our students agropreneurs, We want them to develop entrepreneurial skills in the area of agriculture. And many of them can eventually become millionaires.

“They are not going to graduate and begin to seek for jobs. They can now as well be recruiting people. They will plant very big, but they can start very small, with little money such as #5,000, #10,000, #20,000. These children can start after graduation, even while in the school, some of them can start practicing Hydroponic farming, and all these skills involved, this is what we want the teacher to start putting these children through before they finish their NECO or WAEC.”