Osun food support scheme: Oyetola pledges to support youths on agricultural production

Osun State government on Monday expressed its readiness to support youths who are interested to go into agriculture, saying, there is wealth in farming.

The state governor, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola who made this known during the monthly Food Support Scheme initiated by his administration aimed at cushioning the socio-economic effects of the hardship occasioned by the prevailing global economic downturn and COVID-19 pandemic on the vulnerable citizens.

Speaking at the 11 flag-offs of the scheme at the open field of the Local Government Service Commission, Government Secretariat, Abere, Osogbo, the governor who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Prince Wole Oyebamiji, said the distribution of garri has helped to complement the economic value chain projected by the government.

“Our Administration is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. As such, the Governor has a great interest in the growth of the economy of the state.

“If we are encouraging young men and women to go into farming, we as a government have a responsibility to ensure that they have patronage and to ensure that they have support so that going back to the farm will be meaningful because it is not easy to encourage youths to go back to farm without the necessary support.

“The production of gari being produced locally by our people is an attestation to the fact that there is wealth in farming. This will be an encouragement to boost farming, grow our economy and provide employment opportunities for our people.

“We are proud to do it, and we are not regretting it. This will not in any way relegate other staple foods that we have adopted for distribution. We believe we should encourage local productions too.”

In his remarks, the Commissioner for Special Duties and Regional Integration, Engr. Olalekan Badmus said the Administration of Governor Oyetola would continue to sustain the scheme.

Badmus who assured that the Administration was committed to reactivating local productions called on the young ones to take maximum advantage of the opportunity provided to develop themselves individually and collectively.

“You will agree with me that this is a noble step to ensuring that local content is actually achieved. This has been able to allow the garri farmers, that is, the cassava growers and gari processors, to benefit in one way or the other.

“To arrive at this noble gesture, we are able to identify young entrepreneurs who are into various staple foods production. In the course of meeting one of the entrepreneurs, it was actually discovered that he deliberately went to his town to look for what he could be doing to contribute to the development of his community where he later came up with the production of ‘Garri Ode-Omu.’ This is worthy of emulation.”

Speaking on how the government was able to assemble the entrepreneurs within the State to match up with the quantity of gari required, Badmus said “I went to about ten towns in Osun and I was very impressed with the quantity of gari that I saw.

“The cassava farmers, gari processors and others who are involved in the production were very happy and have a sense of belonging.

“I can assure our people that we have enough quantity to distribute for this edition. We are not resting on our oars. We will still need to go back to see how we can incorporate other sustainable commodities into the scheme. We will continue to be innovative.

“We are not rigid, we will continue to see the possibility of bringing other products. If we can see the possibility of bringing vegetables that can be well packed and have the volume of what we want with the required lifespan, we will not hesitate to go for it. We will continue to do our research. We will continue to bring new products into it.”

One of the local entrepreneurs who supplied a significant amount of garri to the government for distribution, Mr Raji Ahmed Adekunle, hailed Governor Oyetola for providing quality leadership and demonstrating capacity and high sense of seriousness to harness and explore the potential embedded in the youths for the growth and development of the state.

Adekunle said the inclusion of his venture in the list of those that supplied gari to the government has helped to expand the scope of his business for the maximum capacity.

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