Ogbeh inaugurates working group on agriculture varsities

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh has inaugurated a working group on the integration of universities of agriculture with the ministry.

Speaking during the inauguration, Ogbeh said the purpose of the event “is to inaugurate your group and charge you with the work of transition from the previous situation whereby the Universities of Agriculture operated under the Federal Ministry of Education to the future situation whereby they will, henceforth, be operating under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

“Our food needs and demand are rising daily, and we expect that this continue in the near future. Nationwide, the average age of farmers is 64 years. We cannot continue to expect that our aged farmers will shoulder the responsibility of providing us our food and nutritional requirements for healthy living sustainably.

“Accordingly, there is desperate need to train to develop a new generation of farmers-young, educated, enthusiastic, passionate a d ambitious, to feed the nation in the coming years.”

Undoubtedly, our Universities of Agriculture have a great role to play in this regard, hence the need to enlist them for the accomplishment of this compelling strategic national imperative.”