Ekiti State Commissioner for Information, Rt. Hon. Taiwo Olatunbosun has said that the recent training of 400youths in agribusiness by the State Government was carefully designed as better alternative to the continuous provision of palliatives to citizens.

Rt. Hon. Olatunbosun, in a statement made available to newsmen in Ado Ekiti, reiterated the commitment of Governor Biodun Oyebanji to make agriculture attractive to youths in the State and use agribusiness to attain youths’ self-reliance as well as boost economic development.

Noting that the State government recognizes that agriculture remained a sustainable key to solving the nation’s economic challenges, Olatunbosun stressed the resolve of the present administration to leave no stone unturned towards positioning interested youths in a conducive position that can empower them to become self-reliant and employers of labour.

Olatunbosun explained that the government has developed a strategic approach towards harnessing the potential of young talents to drive agricultural innovation and sustainable development in the years to come that was meticulously designed to address youth unemployment.

The focus, according to him, is to encourage the younger generation by nurturing their involvement in agriculture, stressing that agriculture opens doors for several job creations ranging from food production that require services of input suppliers, processors, marketers, and management staff which inevitably ensures the reduction in poverty and hunger and finally, reduces crime rate among youths.

Olatunbosun recalled that the four-day training of the over 400youths was carried out under a Public Private Partnership (PPP), adding that the present administration would continue to partner interested individuals and corporate organizations in a bid to achieve the desired goals of making youths in the State respectable.

He highlighted some of the initiatives of the state government in agriculture to include massive land clearing under the Cluster farming projects, subsidy on the state tractorization scheme to facilitate ploughing and harrowing which is expected to promote commercial farming in the State as against the predominant old model subsistence farming.

The Commissioner stated that the State Government has also renovated the erstwhile moribund Erifun farm settlement that was built by the colonial regime over 60 years ago and is now effectively housing the Livestock Development Centre’s (LDC) and the Youth Engagement in Urban Farming with poultry and agribusiness respectively as well as accommodation for participants, apart from the continuous facilitation of financial assistance in form of loans and grants to kick-start and sustain agribusiness as well as provide improved seeds and seedlings to farmers at subsidized rates.