Agriculture Development In The State of Osun
By Nobei Uju
With the precarious financial situation of Nigeria and the recessive economy being experienced due to lack of mechanisms for manufacturing the country’s necessities, several platforms and phoras have identified a return to Agriculture which was once the mainstay of the nation’s economy as the antidote to solving the situation.
For the Federal Government of Nigeria, the back to farm approach have recorded some successes especially with the Buhari administration stylishly banning the importation of staple foods to ensure that local production is given a huge boost; hence the results yielding from it already.
For the State of Osun where Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola governs, it is also a plus as the government through its Banish Hunger project of its six-point integral action plan initiated since 2010 has come a long way in making Agriculture one of the major cornerstones in rooting for the nation’s development.
The state since 2010 through the Osun Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Programme O’REAP has ensured standards in the state’s agricultural sector.
The O’REAP programme has facilitated the allocation of large hectares of land to erstwhile peasant farmers and interested members of the public who have passion for farming. Aside this, young and vibrant agriculturists from the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme, O’YES also had a wide range of benefits to acquire from the government’s initiative.
One of those areas is the selection of about 150 young individuals of the state for world best practices training in Germany. They were trained on every segment of Agriculture and the modern techniques in crop and animal production. These set of trained agricultural experts returned to the state few months ago and are ready to put into use the knowledge gained to meaningfully impact on the state’s agric sector.
For the State of Osun formerly seen as a state with no value, and has been classified as a dead State where nothing good can be gotten from is now turning into a model with the range of trained experts in the field. Aside those in O’REAP project initiative. There are also other programmes that have distinguished the Aregbesola administration ideas on agriculture.
Among these are O’Hub, O’Beef, O’Cattle, O’Livestock, O’Bops among others that have positively impacted on the people and as well attracted investment within the state by engaging local industries and companies in the sector.
Agricultural development in the State has not been carried alone, but with the help of an institute has helped the State in the reconstruction and the revamping of the different sector as its helping to increase productivity and the growth strength of the farms and livestock’s.
The State Of Osun is now the food basket of the Southwest with how much produce has been gotten from the Agriculture development, from livestock to cocoa production.
Indeed agriculture in the state is on it high peak as people are benefiting from it, sectors like the ongoing school feeding program, as the produce are gotten directly from farmers in the State and also the out pour of the rice production in the State and also with the livestock(O-pig) and so much more.
