From Juliana Agbo, Abuja
Kwara State government said it has reserved 500 hectares of land as part of the National Agricultural Land Development Authority’s (NALDA) programme targeted at empowering 77,400 young farmers to engage in agricultural business.
Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq who made this known yesterday in Abuja while speaking with journalists after his meeting with the Executive Secretary/CEO of NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne, said it would serve as pilot program in three local governments which would be implemented afterwards in the entire state.
Governor AbdulRazaq said the target was to bring youths, both graduates into agriculture and make them understand that agriculture is beneficial.
While noting that the land is ready with issuance of certificate of occupancy to begin in the next few weeks, he stated that the program would kick start by August.
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“It is an ideal programme to kick start massive agricultural programme for youth employment, this is an important programme which we need to key into, and we can’t just wait since the Federal Government has made announcement, we had to rush forward.
“Within the pilot scheme, we look at the pros and cons and how to improve on it and extend it to all the local governments, and from there, expand forthwith and bring more youths to cultivate the land.
“We want to expand our fish farm in the state, especially tilapia fish, animal husbandry, we have packaged different crops for each local government and we will improve from there”, Governor Ahmed said.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of NALDA, Prince Ikonne said plans were on the way to establish a cashew processing plant in Kwara for the North Central zone.
He said: “We already have cashew plantations in Kwara that are still there, almost 2000 to 3000 hectares and we have agreed as well that we will put the cashew processing plant for North Central in Kwara State”, he said.
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