The Kwara State Government has expressed its readiness to engage 10,000 youths in the state through its agricultural empowerment scheme.
The Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Hon. Bamidele Adegoke, stated this during an interview with newsmen in Ilorin, the state capital.
Adegoke said the state government had already keyed into the Federal Government’s agricultural programme, which was introduced to bolster youth empowerment and transform agriculture from subsistence farming to commercial farming.
He said that the programme was the Accelerated Agricultural Development Scheme (AADS), which was introduced for citizens between the ages of 18 and 35, adding that the state government has been able to meet all necessary conditions.
The Commissioner stated that the Anchor Borrowers programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is targeted at engaging the youth by the state government.
“For us in Kwara, we are working with the Federal Government to achieve plans for the country’s agricultural growth through sound policies. Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has declared that as a matter of priority, Kwara, as an agrarian state, must position itself right,” he said.
Adegoke noted that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had constituted a technical team to liaise with some Chinese manufacturers of agricultural machineries on the kinds of equipment that would be suitable for the AADS project.
“We want to ascertain the equipment that would be okay for our own terrain but up till now, there are still some hitches. We are hoping that very soon, everything will scale through,” he said.
