Farming not minimum wage will reduce hunger – Don tells youth

An agriculturist, Dr. Kayode Sule, has said engaging in agriculture and industrialization, not the minimum wage, would stave off hunger and the economic challenges facing Nigeria.

Sule, who is the Dean of Student Affairs, College of Agriculture, Akure, said this on Saturday in Akure at the second edition of a quiz competition and lecture organised by the school’s Kite Press club.

Sule called on youths to engage more in agricultural practices and business rather than focusing on government jobs for employment.

The don said that the rate of unemployment and hunger in the country had made it imperative for all Nigerians, especially the youths, to go into agricultural production, processing, and services.

According to him, the time has come for the government to look for ways of helping people create jobs for themselves rather than recruitment into the overburdened civil service.

“Ondo State, as an example, has a population of over four million people, and I don’t think that the number of civil servants in the state is up to 100,000.

“So, if we take 100,000 from four million people, we will realise that self-employment, rather than white collar jobs, is the way to go.

“We want people to know that cassava, which used to be an ordinary food crop, has become an industrial crop today.

“This is because, from it, we can generate ethanol, industrial starch, and many other things.

“Cassava is seriously needed in many countries around the world, as is tomato and livestock production.

“So, agribusiness is profitable, and I am advising our youths to embrace it wholeheartedly for food sufficiency in the country,” he said.

In his remarks, Dr. Joshua Ayantayo, Coordinator of the College Kites Press Club, said that the yearly quiz competition had revived the reading culture in many students, which in turn improved their academic performances.

Ayantayo, who teaches English Language and Communication in the General Studies Department, appealed to students not to see education as a scam but as highly essential to a better society.

“Rather than engaging in internet fraud, which will not lead anywhere, students need to think of how to contribute their quota to the development of society and stop seeing education as a scam,” he said.

Supreme News reports that six departments of Animal Health and Production Technology; Crop Production Technology; Pasture and Range Management; Agricultural Extension and Management; Horticultural Technology and Agricultural Engineering; and Bio-Environmental participated in the quiz competition.

The Department of Crop Production Technology came first, the Department of Animal Health and Production Technology came second, and the Department of Pasture and Ranger Management came third in the quiz competition.