IITA distributes input, farming equipment to young farmers in Oyo  

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has supported young farmers trained by its Youth in Agribusiness project in Oyo state with input and various farming equipment. Speaking at the event held in Ibadan on Tuesday, the Head of the Genetic Resources Centre at IITA, Prof Michael Abberton, said the input support would facilitate the […]

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has supported young farmers trained by its Youth in Agribusiness project in Oyo state with input and various farming equipment.

Speaking at the event held in Ibadan on Tuesday, the Head of the Genetic Resources Centre at IITA, Prof Michael Abberton, said the input support would facilitate the expansion of their agribusiness ventures.

Abberton, who represented the Senior Management Team, applauded the participants for their commitment to agriculture, admonishing them to leverage the support network established for them by the project. He also thanked the Kingdom of the Netherlands for supporting the project.

The support items included solar irrigation system, rotary slashers, defeathering machine, stems of improved cassava varieties, fertilizers, Gaari fryers, water tanks, vegetable seeds, fish and poultry feed, seedling trays, coco peat, packs of improved maize varieties, generator, irrigation drips, knapsack sprayers and Gaari pressers.

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He stated, “Youth involvement in agribusiness has been the focus of the IITA Youth in Agribusiness Office over the last decade, so this initiative is very important to IITA. By virtue of the training and input support, your businesses will be able to scale-up, coupled with the people you are bringing into employment by virtue of your expansion and the businesses you are creating. So, congratulations for being part of this.

“With your cassava, fish, horticulture, poultry, cassava processing and other commodities, this is a good start. The support network has been created and I hope you will continue to leverage it to expand your businesses. We look forward to seeing your businesses expand.”

The Chief Executive Officer, IITA Youth Agripreneurs, Ms Aline Mugisho, represented by a Business Development Expert in the unit, Mr Idowu Osun, called on the participants to embrace the coaching and mentorship programme for all past participants of the project.

He added, “This project is also being implemented in Abuja, Oyo and Ogun states, so we have a large pool of participants year after year that you can network with, and we have a top-notch coaching and mentorship program that will help you. We encourage you to stay in touch. Feel free to disturb us; that is our work. Agribusiness is big business and we are here to support you.”

Also, the Project Coordinator, Mr Adebayo Awotodunbo, said YAS would continue to sustain its relationship with its participants, adding, “We want the training to translate to enterprises and then to big businesses, which is why we supported you with items that are critical to your agro-businesses.

“We want you to scale up your businesses to be able to get better income and be employers of labor in your communities, and these inputs will help to make it happen. Above that, we want you to contribute to food security in Nigeria.

“We thank the Kingdom of the Netherlands for sponsoring this project. As the monitoring and evaluation team visited all the businesses for evaluation, they will be back to assess your utilization of this input and recommend if we should provide you with more input. But if you have sold the items, you are out of the scheme.”

One of the participants, Kushimo-Festus Oluwakemi, thanked the project for the training and support.

“You have impacted us and we will not let you down. For all the input you have given us today, we promise to make you proud because we will use them wisely and by the time you come back to check on us, you will be glad you gave us this support,” she added.

The partners of the project represented at the event included the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), HortiNigeria, YSJ Limited and Farm Help Agro.

Benedict Ukpukpen, who represented HortiNigeria, stated, “We are proud to be part of this impactful initiative, a critical step towards empowering young agripreneurs and strengthening our agricultural value chains.

“At Horti Nigeria, we believe that access to the right input, knowledge and network is key to unlocking the potential of youth in transforming agriculture. We encourage you to make the most of them, apply climate-smart practices and continue to build agribusinesses that contribute to food security, economic growth and sustainable development.”

Also, the representative of ILRI, Dr Odekunle, commended the IITA and YAS project for the “unrelenting efforts.”

“I facilitated some of the training for poultry farmers and I’m so happy seeing some of the faces here. See this support as a great opportunity to scale-up. Making use of all the things given to you and practicing what you were taught will go a long way to encourage other youths to embrace agriculture,” he said.