We’ll take farming to schools – Lawmaker

Mr Olukayode Ogundipe, Lawmaker representing Oshodi/Isolo I at the Lagos State House of Assembly, said that farming programmes would be taken to schools to draw the attention of students to agriculture.

Ogundipe said this at the Lagos State House of Assembly 9th Constituency Stakeholders’ Meeting held at the Oshodi/Isolo Local Government Secretariat, on Friday in Lagos.

The theme of the meeting was, “Ensuring Good Security for a Sustainable Future: Youth Participation and Home-Grown Farming.”

According to Ogundipe, taking farming to schools is to ensure that they taught students from their young age to pay attention to farming.

“The policies pushed out by Lagos State Government is towards catching them young, so that the knowledge will be in them. We are also working on bringing role models that are farmers to them to encourage them,” he said.

The lawmaker noted that farming did not need to be big, rather constituents could engage in poultry farming around their houses.

He said that even a plot of land would be enough for poultry farming, adding that this would ensure a sustainable future.

“Government is willing to provide tools, enabling environment for you to farm. Our role models can also go to our schools to teach them and this is not just talking theory, but practical where you see the person involved,” he said.

He noted that the event was to encourage members of the constituency to participate in farming as government could not do it alone.

Ogundipe stressed that Lagos residents could not depend 100 per cent on their brothers from the north bringing food to them.

“This noise of ‘we are hungry ‘will be resolved if we put our hands together to assist the Federal, state and local governments by providing food in our various homes and growing the foods we eat in our homes,” he said.

The lawmaker also urged parents to train their children so that they become good leaders in the future, and to shun online fraud and other vices.

Also, Alhaja Modupe Badmus-Aregbe, Vice Chairman, Oshodi/Isolo Local Government, noted that the stakeholders meeting was for the community to tell them the wrongs done and pave way for the future.

“This will allow us to know what to do in subsequent months and I want the Oshodi/Isolo community to expect more from us.

“This is because, now, there is a synergy between us and the house of representatives, and we are working hand-in-hand to make Oshodi great.

“ We have new schools, roads and health centres that are in the pipeline, a lot of empowerment for women and others,” she said.

Mrs Sefinat Hassan from the State Ministry of Agriculture, called on the youths to come out to participate in agricultural programmes in the state, saying that it would make positive impact on their lives.

Hassan noted that there was need for people to grow what they would eat, adding that such farming could be done in sacs around the compound.

The Sogunle Divisional Police Officer, Rotimi Durojaiye, while listing problems faced in the division, urged the lawmaker to look into providing them with patrol vehicles.