Okpbeholo’s Agro Life-nd Projects Target Young Farmers To Boost Food Security In Edo

In a bid to ensure food security and develop agriculture for economic growth, the Edo State coordinator of Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise, Mr John Omoruyi, on Wednesday, said the programme has taken its campaign to secondary and primary schools in the State to encourage the need to embrace agriculture among students and pupils.

Omoruyi said the project, which is in line with the policy drive of Governor Monday Okpbeholo, also targets youths at the grassroot and ensurez that the farming population is sustained.

He said beyond setting up agricultural clubs in schools, the project targets to plant 20,000 economic trees using secondary schools, adding that the idea was to promote horticulture and climate change agriculture.

He said, “In conjunction with the ideology and objective of Governor Monday Okpebholo to ensure food security, we need to start from the grassroot because it is a community base project and to further ensure that the farming population is sustained by catching them young.

“We are still going to strengthen the schools as soon as the rain sets in. The project targets to plant 20,000 economic trees using the secondary schools in collaboration with the management of the schools. 2,000 per school and at the end, we would get 20,000 and support the Edo State government in terms of forestry and environmental management. In essence, the Life-nd Project is a total support to the ideology of the Edo State government to support food security and promote agriculture.”

Speaking in the same vein, Edo State Life-nd Nutrition Mainstreaming Specialist, Mr Romanius Alike, lamented that the passion for agriculture especially among young people was dying, noting that the idea was to change the narrative among students and pupils in public schools.

He said the project has commenced in Uzebba Grammar School, Owan local government area; Arazuwa Primary School, Ovia North East local government area; Oghomeri Primary School, Etsako Central local government area; Comprehensive High School, Ekpedo, Akoko Edo local government, and Igbanke Grammar School, Orhionmwon local government area of the state.

“So, we want to change that narrative and that is why we are catching them young to develop interest in agriculture. The initiative is to set up gardens in schools in five public schools across the three senatorial zones in the state. We selected JS1 to SS3, so in total we have 72 students per school. In the 5 schools, we have 360 students, some farmers in the community are also involved and we provided them with improved seedlings.

“The garden will be a demonstration plot for other students to learn from and we have also discussed with the director of school services to key into the project,” he added.