ARMTI wants govt to harness potato farming potential

ACTING Director of Agricultural, Rural and Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Ilorin, Anthony Njoku has said that Nigeria has the required fertile land and potential manpower to turn the nation into a major exporter of sweet potatoes’ products.

But Njoku said this would only be feasible if there is a veritable youth agricultural policy in Nigeria that would prepare the nation’s youth for agricultural businesses, and thus gradually use them as replacement for the present ageing population of farmers in the country.

Already, the ARMTI has commenced a demonstration farm on its campus for the large cultivation and production of the Sweet Potatoes, as two Nigerian states of Kwara and Osun have been identified as largest producers of the tubers.

Sweet potatoes are noted for their richness in Vitamin ‘A’. Besides, Njoku said, mass cultivation of the tubers has ready-made consumers in Osun state, under its school feeding programme.

The development could be fallout of the recent sponsorship of demonstration of large-scale production of Sweet Potatoes in Peru, South America, by the renowned American business magnate and a co founder of Microsoft, Bill Gate and his wife, Melinda.