Osun State youths newly trained in agricultural production in Germany returned to Nigeria at the weekend with a promise to create a huge impact in the agriculture and general food production sector of the country.
The youths, numbering 20, arrived into the waiting hands of officials of the Osun State Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Youth Engagement.
They came in through the Muritala International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
The youths, who were sponsored to Germany by the state government, gave the assurance that they would deliver on their training mandate on their arrival in Osogbo, the state capital, after their two months trip abroad.
It would be recalled that the state government had previously in 2013 sponsored 20 youths to Germany on the need to acquire knowledge in modern agricultural practices with greater impacts in various aspects of agriculture in the state since the team arrived.
This initiative was part of the state’s resolve to banish hunger, enhance wealth through massive increase in food production and agriculture and as well providing assistance and support to farmers in finding and exploiting profitable agricultural practices.
The leader of the youths, Adebayo Waheed Adekunle, who described the initiative as timely, necessary and wise intervention, said the team was ready to bring about the development needed in agriculture.
Adekunle said every member of the team was also ready to translate the experiences they gathered in the course of the training to effect greater agricultural production.
The captain of the team, who described agriculture as the only feasible and workable alternative to crude oil, said the time has come for all and sundry to rise to the occasion and invest hugely in agriculture.
He called for better orientation capable of creating worthy environment for agriculture to thrive, adding: “There is a need to transit from primitive farming method to modern way of practising agriculture.”
Adekunle, who identified contemporary knowledge as the key to successful agricultural practices, said the time has come for every farmer to invest in knowledge-based agriculture.
He said agricultural practice has gone beyond physical manual method, hence called for the need to transit to scientific system, which, according to him, has the capacity to bring the desired result.
According to him: “This trip is an eye opener to modern agricultural methods as we were trained in different aspects of agriculture vis-a-vis technological implications in farming.
“We have been exposed to secrets in agriculture as per how one can improve geometrically on his yields, inputs and outputs easily and professionally.
“I am saying this because we have been made to know that agriculture has gone beyond traditional manual method but rather highly advanced system, which only required knowledge not unwarranted stress.
“Knowledge rules the world and as such we are ready to put things in the right perspective to turn around agriculture in the state by ensuring that what we learnt brings positive impacts in the lives of the teeming youths and other farmers.”
Adekunle called on the youth to see the need to go back to agriculture instead of relying on white collar jobs that are not existed.
Adekunle, who expressed the hope in the better improvement of the nation’s economy, said: “With agriculture, Nigeria can be great again.”
