A firm, RConnect, Monday, in partnership with BluePearl Medicals & Surgical Limited and Ekiti State School Agricultural Enterprise Agency, flagged off the 2nd cropping season for 100 schools across the three senatorial districts of the state.
Recall that the National Schools Agribusiness Initiative (NSAIN) was launched on March 9, 2023 in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital, and currently running in 146 schools across four states of the federation.
Speaking during the flag-off in Ado Ekiti, the National Coordinator of RConnect, Mr. Habeeb Opeyemi Lawal, said the project aimed to catch the students young and to provide an alternative source of income for school administrators.
He said: “We aim to utilize human and material resources productively, strengthen national food security, generate and sustain millions of jobs, and reinforce advocacy for industrial usage of OFSP. Also, we plan to generate between N300, 000 and N5 million yearly from school farms for 34,000 schools across 24 states between 2023 and 2027.
“We also aim to train and empower 340,000 young and dynamic Agriprenuers between 2023 and 202, and to increase domestic and commercial utilization of orange flesh sweet potatoes. Also, it is part of our mission statement to increase Nigeria’s cultivation of sweet potatoes from 3.7m metric tonnes to 9m metric tonnes yearly in the next 4 years.
“Under this programme, we also plan to increase Nigeria’s world ranking in sweet potato production, and to beat Tanzania and Malawi to 2nd position in the world ranking of sweet potatoes production.’’
