The Federal College of Agriculture, Ibadan, has restated its commitment to grooming successful agricultural entrepreneurs and ensuring food security in the country.
Its Provost , Dr. Elizabeth Augustus, said in a press briefing on Tuesday that the school was ready to ensure practical and hands on training to produce graduate entrepreneurs and ensure increased food production in line with Federal Government’s aspirations.
“The aim of the college is to produce pragmatic graduates who will, in turn, provide laudable solution to the challenges in the agricultural sector.
“This college is working in tandem with the vision of the present administration in the area of agriculture and food security. Our focus remains making sure that our students are pragmatic.
“We want our students to be practically oriented so as to be employers of labour rather than job seekers on graduation.
“The vision of the present administration is to create jobs and wealth, and also ensure food security, among others.
“To achieve our goal of raising world class agroprenuers, we have invested in organic farming practice and membership of international bodies on agriculture best practices.
“The institute will intensify its efforts toward ensuring food security in the country via continuous training and retraining.
“Our mandate is training. We train middle level manpower in the area of agriculture and related disciplines and have been doing so since the college was established 100 years ago.
“We are still carrying out research on new areas; we are working harder at ensuring that there is food security and sufficiency in the country,” Augustus said.
The provost, however, said that raising funds for projects was a major challenge, but expressed optimism that collaboration with relevant stakeholders would go a long way in bridging the financial gap of the college.
NAN reports that the college, which was established in 1921, is the first agricultural institution in Nigeria and West Africa.
It is saddled with the responsibilities of upholding training standards in Nigerian Colleges of Agriculture.
(NAN)
