Nigeria's quest for sufficiency in food production appears threatened as young school leavers are showing poor interest in agriculture education.
Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Dibu Ojerinde, who stated that agriculture education ranked first among the least subscribed courses in the 2015 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), lamented that the negative trend would not augur well for the country's drive for food production and sufficiency.
Speaking further on a live programme, 'NTA LIVE On Tuesday' he said, 'Agriculture is the least subscription; 'nobody wants to study agriculture and everybody wants to eat', adding that next was education.
However, the Executive Secretary, National Board For Technical Education (NBTE), Dr. Mas'udu Adamu Kazaure, has tasked Colleges Of Agriculture in the country to ensure the revitalization of the abandoned opportunities in Agric-Entrepreneurship, adding that henceforth similar institutions offering agriculture education must comply or loose accreditation of their programmes.
Speaking further at the mandatory training workshop on entrepreneurship for polytechnics and similar institutions in Nigeria in collaboration with the host institution, the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, Dr. Kazaure said, "I wish to specifically invite participants from Colleges of Agriculture to critically consider the abandoned opportunities in Agric-Entrepreneurship.
"The major framework for Agric-Entrepreneurship is to enhance production of agricultural produce by making best use of technological innovations and inventions, resource and demand in the market," he added.
Lamenting the 1.3 million unemployed Nigerians that entered the job market annually, he stated that youths between the ages of 24 to 44 constituted about 53 per cent of the 49 million unemployed people in the country.
He added that if educational institutions would tap into the opportunities of Agric-Entrepreneurship many young Nigerians graduates would be free from the economic marginalisation and social exclusion.
Speaking on the need for entrepreneurship Education Programme in agriculture, Kazaure said teaching education is very poor such that children no longer want to take up learning in teacher education or go to polytechnic.
"I am a typical college of education trainee. I went to Adeyemi College of Education. I did not see myself as an inferior material. I could compete favourably with my classmates anytime anywhere. It is the greatest college of education in the world and I mean it. I got my education from the college of education and that took me to where I am now", he said.
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