A Professor of Agricultural Production Economics, Adewale Oladapo Dipeolu at the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB) is worried over the continuous high prices of foods and inadequate funding of agricultural sector in Nigeria,asking the Federal Government to invest more in providing good roads and other basic infrastructures to enhance massive food production in the country
Dipeolu deliverying the university's 66th inaugural Lecture titled "Food Demand Decisions Not Only The Numerics But The Characteristics", on Wednesday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State Capital, stressed the need for government to increase financial support to farmers and take advantage of enormous opportunities in the agricultural value chains to create more jobs for youths, particularly among number of unemployed graduates of agriculture, to establish small and medium scale enterprises
His words", I think Government should try to do more in terms of policy formulation, to create jobs through agriculture. We have a lot of unemployed graduates particularly in agriculture, to create more jobs in small and medium scale enterprises and interest rate for agric loan facility is single digits for agricultural enterprises but it seems to me that government is paying lip service to the sector"
The don also challenged his colleagues in academic, to come up with researches to meet demands of farmers in terms Improve varieties to ensure high yield and massive food production
The Professor of Agricultural Production Economics who attributed the foods shortage to the negative effects of COVID-19 lock down early this year and climatic change, emphasised the urgent support of government to farmers to produce ennmass and crash prices of foods and other commodities in the markets
He enjoined the FUNAAB do more for its students by providing earthmoving equipment to cultivate farmlands and practicalise what they had taught
"FUNAAB should provide earthmoving equipment that will help students to grow, students should not just be taught theory alone, we should have more graduates in agriculture, plying their trades", Dipeolu insisted
He added that the university should be producing employers of labour not job seekers saying "FUNAAB should be entrepreuner based university, where students are thought how to be employers of labour. We are trying our best right now but I think we can do more like giving farm bursary to students and you use such farm bursary you have given them to cultivate farmlands and not just theory alone"
Deputy Vice-Chancellor(Academic) of the university,Prof.Bolanle Akeredolu-Ale who represented the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Felix Kolawole Salako, speaking from the sideline of the inaugural lecture, said that the Institution had continued to make its research-outputs available to private organizations to improve on agricultural products in Nigeria
Akeredolu-Ale who blamed the food crisis being experienced in the country on mostly the herders/farmers clashes and climatic change, listed some of such research outputs to include improved two varieties of tomatoes and rabbits production, calling on the private sector to make good use of such research findings made available to them, to boost food production in the country
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