Group urges youth empowerment via agric

The Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, has been urged to facilitate the agriculture policy of the President Muhammadu Buhari and prioritise youth empowerment in the sector.

The president, Initiative for Youth Awareness on Migrating, Immigration, Development and Re-integration (IYAMIDR), Okoduwa Solomon who gave the charge yesterday in a statement in Benin City, the Edo State capital, appealed to government for agricultural support to boost the productivity of youths from the state and recently deported citizens by involving them in the agricultral programmes of the current administration in the country.

He specifically asked that the unemployed and the returnees be urgently integrated and empowered with farm implements like tractors, fertilisers, sprayers, milling machine as well as motorised harvesters among others to make for optimal production and harvest.

Okoduwa noted that his group was a concept-driven organisation poised at addressing the challenges of illegal migration of Nigerian youths.

“Having seen that we can create employment for these returnees from various countries, we have decided to explore the available chain to create a cluster of agro-business, with an attempt to generate a spillover effect in the diversification of the Nigerian economy thus achieving a full re-integration project,” he added.