The executive secretary of the Network for Agricultural Technical Education of Nigeria (NATEN), Mr Newton Ovie, has called on tertiary institutions to embrace digital (online) training as a means of stimulating the interests of the youth in agriculture.
He made the call during his working visit to member institutions within the south-west axis at the weekend, where he tasked the Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora campus working committee of NATEN to work as a think tank for the institution.
Ovie, who was received by the acting rector of the college, Mr Isiaka Adekunle and the campus working committee, said with the highly experienced personnel in tertiary institutions and member institutions must occupy the digital space in order to train youths on profitable agricultural enterprises.
He said: “Part of my working visit to middle level tertiary institutions is to stimulate the response of college-based committees towards young persons and help them develop strategies to use in reaching out to the young persons in the way that is attractive, so that the young persons would key into it.
“If the aging farmers must be replaced by the youths, then tertiary institutions must turn agricultural courses to agricultural enterprises and make agriculture attractive to them.”
He added that OYSCATECH should be ready to take the polytechnic to another level by joining other member institutions that have become Entrepreneurship Development Institutes (EDI).
Ovie revealed that NATEN was presently working with an Indian Small Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) on how to assist lecturers from member-institutions to acquire a technology that can process different types of agricultural products.
He called on member institutions to come up with innovative proposals with agricultural extension components for consideration.
He also called on the campus-based committee to establish Agric Clubs in secondary schools.
Mr Adekunle, in his response, commended the NATEN for its quest at making agriculture attractive for the youths.
He pledged the college’s commitment to NATEN and its various programmes.
The chairman of the OYSCATECH campus-based committee and the deputy rector, Dr Taiwo Akinyemi, thanked the executive secretary for the visitation.
During the visit, the NATEN executive secretary also visited the following other member institutions within the South-West: Adeyemi Federal University of Education, Ondo; Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti; Osun State Polytechnic, Iree; Federal College of Agriculture, Ibadan (Moore Plantation) (FCAIB), and the Federal College of Animal Health and Production Technology, Ibadan.
NATEN is supported by the USAID Farmer2Farmer Programme implemented by Winrock International in Nigeria.
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