The Managing Director, Odu’a Investment Company Limited, Mr. Adebayo Jimoh, says an Osun-Odu’a Farmers Academy has been established to teach the youth good agricultural practices in order to boost food security.
Jimoh said this on Thursday at the graduation of 410 trainees of the academy, which is located in Ede, Osun State.
According to him, the academy will stimulate youth interest in agriculture to ensure that there are replacements for the ageing farmers.
He said it was worrisome that ageing farmers were the only set of people left on the farms to produce food for the teeming population of Nigeria.
But he said that with the academy, which the company established in 2009 and now being operated in collaboration with the Osun State Government, there would be opportunities for the youth to learn modern agricultural practices, which would boost food production.
He said, “You will agree with me that the 21st Century agriculture is being challenged to produce and deliver high quality, nutritious, affordable food to a growing population while sharing limited land and other resources with all other human needs and activities.
“The Nigerian farmers across the country are also getting old (with an average of 60 years of age) hence the need for the training of young skilled farmers to continue in this vital profession, providing food security and caring for our agricultural lands and their surrounding ecosystems.
“Odu’a Investment is happy to partner with the state to provide the highest level of qualitative and modern training for new and emerging commercial farmers in viable food commodities with a view to sustaining food security in Nigeria.”
Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State said that his administration’s involvement of youths in agricultural enterprises was a way of tackling the menace of youth unemployment.
Aregbesola explained that the programme was borne out of the administration’s commitment to equip the youth and enhance their capacity to earn decent and virtuous living.
He said, “What we are witnessing today is the culmination of our administration’s resolve to equip our youths with requisite skills that will enable them to contribute adequately to agricultural production, even as they legitimately earn a decent living.
“The practical training in modern farming techniques would have broadened the horizons of the participants and added depth to their managerial abilities as well as strengthened them to creatively address societal challenges through agricultural endeavours.”
PUNCH

Ilesa Students thronged after Governor Aregbesola in appreciation of his good governance in Osun, bringing traffic to a stand still along roads linking Ilesa Grammar School, venue of the interactive forum tagged: Gbangbadekun on Thursday 05-12-2013

Motorists have been advised to cultivate the habit of complying with traffic rules without waiting for law enforcement agents to apprehend them.
Chairman, State of Osun Technical Committee on Federal Road Safety Commission set up by Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Prof. Joseph Fawole gave the advice during a road show embarked upon by the Committee.
While disclosing that the dominant offences for which most of the offenders were apprehended and booked were, failure to use the seat belt and overloading. Professor Fawole lamented that some motorists were caught with right hand drive vehicles which had been banned since 1973.
He then promised that the committee will not relent in its public enlightenment endeavours, until a sound road culture is cultivated as in development societies.
OSUN NEWS

The commissioner for information and strategy, Mr. Sunday Akere has admonished people to live safely and be security conscious of their environment during this festive period.
He said this today in Owode town while on a market rally organized by the ministry of information and strategy, State of Osun. He advised the people to always beware of the happening going on around them and to report any act of unlawfulness to the appropriate authority.
Furthermore, Mr. Akere also encouraged parents to pay more attention to their children. That they should always find the time to know how their children are coping with their studies in their various schools. He said the government has provided the ‘OPON IMO’ tablet to enhance and improve the learning ability of student in public schools; hence parent should try and monitor how their children use these tablets as well as its maintenance.
He also stated that, the people should not see the educational reforms in the state as a means to pride a particular religion over the other, but as a means of strengthening the educational sector in the state of Osun.
OSUN NEWS

The State of Osun under the focus minded leadership of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has been making efforts to reduce the State’s over reliance on Federal allocation in sustaining the state needs by strategizing to boost Internally Generated Revenue.

The newly appointed acting Chairman, Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Dayo Oyebanji, dropped this hint during a familiarization meeting with the association of Tax Audit Monitoring Agency. The Acting Chairman said that, of all the available means of generating revenue for the state, the one generated internally through the Internal Revenue Service stands out as the only stable means.  He further described taxation as an ingredient of development in different parts of the world.  Hence the revenue generated from tax is the one used to provide for the needs of the citizenry.

He however, promised to liberate the State of Osun from the bondage of over reliance on Federal allocation by using his vast experience in boosting the Internally Generated Revenue to a satisfactory level. He also appreciated the high turnout of the Tax Audit Monitoring Agency Members to the meeting and urged them to be up and doing in their professional dealings especially in blocking all leakages in the tax system.

Responding, Pastor Olumide Bolorunduro, one of the members of the Tax Audit Monitoring Agency (TAMA) welcomed the Acting Chairman to his new assignment and assured him of their support in achieving the set target goals.

OSUN NEWS