Oyo State Governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde, has asked for a review of secondary schools curriculum to make the teaching of Agriculture as a business.
He made this call at the launch of Start Them Early Programme (STEP) in Oyo State and the inauguration of STEP Agribusiness Facility at Fasola Grammar School, Oyo, on Thursday.
He noted that teaching Agriculture as a business at the primary and secondary schools will enable scholars to possess practical entrepreneurial training and knowledge of modern agriculture practice early in life.
He stressed that the teaching of Agribusiness from the cradle, would help diversify the typical picture in the minds of young people of an older man or woman back bent, tilling the soil with a hoe or attacking weeds with a cutlass.
He said that his government is open to ideas that will change the perception of the young ones towards Agriculture.
In Makinde’s words: “In the 80s to early 90s, we had the Young Farmer’s Club in schools. There was also the School to Land Programme in Rivers State. These programmes helped to steer the interest of some youths towards Agriculture, and I must say that some people who have grown to become farmers today developed their interest in Agriculture because of those initiatives.
“So, it is time to borrow a leaf out of the 80s book and bring back this initiative.
“This pilot programme will expose young minds to careers in Agriculture that they never knew existed, and they will be given the needed direction to pursue these careers.
“I am particularly thrilled because they will not only be learning Agriculture in the classroom. Positive peer pressure, in the form of social clubs, will be used to reinforce their classroom training, and then, they will get practical entrepreneurial training in the business of Agriculture.
“The truth is, what we set before young people as goals, is what they will pursue. When our parents told us to be doctors, lawyers, engineers and architects, we followed that path.
“The school system also emphasised those professions. It is now time to diversify. It is time to start teaching our children, the business of agriculture.”
He lauded the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for the STEP initiative, declaring that the state government is poised to site such agribusiness facilities across the six geopolitical zones of the state.
“I will provide a small budget within the 2020 budget of Oyo state for IITA and our Ministry of Education, as well as Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA) to locate facilities like this within the other six geopolitical zones in the state.
He said: “We have a Memorandum of Understanding with IITA to do the survey. We will finish the survey this year, and if we move really fast, we will be able to do one or two before this year runs out.
“I will take ownership of this project, the rest of the schools will come in under the 2021 budget. This project starting in Fasola Grammar School will be extended to other areas of Oyo state. Through this project, we will have a new generation of agropreneurs in Oyo State.”
Giving an overview, Coordinator, STEP, Mr Adedayo Adefioye, said the programme is to enable young people develop interest in Agriculture and promote the subject as a business in Oyo state.
He said young people would be encouraged to embrace improved modern farming technologies rather than subsistence farming.
In his remarks, Coordinator, Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation Programme (TAAT), Dr Chrusantus Akem, urged the state government to prioritise the security of the Fasola facility.
According to him, the way to go, in today’s world, is for agribusiness to be embedded in the school curriculum.
Students of Fasola Grammar School including Folarin Motunrayo and Samuel Joshua said that with training under STEP, they had been enriched with knowledge of the use of modern equipment to ease Agriculture.
With their knowledge of mechanisation, greenhouse, ICT, biogas, agribusiness, the students noted that they were assured of sustainable living by being in Agriculture.
Todayng
