Ogun State Government and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, are set to enter into partnership, aimed at providing technical and other support to the various Agricultural Programmes
Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Adeola Odedina revealed this when a four-man team from the Institute paid a facility visit to the farm settlement at Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State to access facilities at Odeda Farm Setllement saying, it will be the first point of intervention aimed at preparing the institute as a centre for youth-focused Agricultural training Programme.
He noted that IITA will support Ogun State Government in establishing demonstrations farms and be involved in training of young people in Ogun State in various Agri-business ventures.
“We are meeting with IITA team to develop a Memorandum of Understanding. We are the closest to the Institute and we should be the first line of beneficiary. We want them to support our agricultural activities”, he disclosed.
The Commissioner of Agriculture submitted that the Settlement has good training resources that can be leveraged on for the various youth-focused agricultural programmes of Ogun State.
Leader of IITA team, Dr Okechukwu Richardson who expressed IITA’s readiness to partner Ogun, said, the inspection was meant to assess the facilities on ground and how to improve them towards food sufficiency.
“We are impressed with the facilities we have seen. We will be happy to partner with the state. We are here to work out modalities to do something that will benefit Ogun State”, he said.
Facilities visited included, on-going land clearing and preparation site, Eweje dam, fish pond, Fish Processing Unit, feed mill, cattle ranch among others.
