Read: School offers Agricultural Education to youths, free of charge

The Agricultural Training School of the Leventis Foundation Nigeria located in Dogon Dawa, Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area, Kaduna State, has trained over 5,000 young Nigerian’s on modern and sustainable agricultural methods, vocational education and rational use of natural resources free of charge in 30 years.

The school, which runs a one-year training programme, was established in support of the Federal Government’s new education programme on self-sufficiency in food production and has at its disposal 150 hectares of farmland in a pre-dominantly sub-humid guinea savanna region for farming.

The foundation owns and sponsors a short-term free training for students, during which the trainees are fed free and given monthly allowance of N3,000 each.

The trainees spend one year in the school and then return to communities where they transfer their skills to other farmers.

The school also organizes short training courses and farmers field days for the surrounding communities.

Speaking at the occasion to mark the schools 30th anniversary, the principal, Mr. Adebayo Aworeni Awotodunbo, said the foundation has identified agriculture as the most important sector of the Nigerian economy in terms of sustainable employment, provision of raw materials for the industry as well as provision of food for the citizenry.

While explaining the interest of the foundation in giving free agric education to Nigerians, especially youths, Awotodunbo said, “For any nation to experience meaningful and desirable development, the most vulnerable and marginalized groups -the youths and women – must be sustainably mainstreamed into eco-friendly agriculture.”

He said in 30 years the foundation had bridged “the gap of youth unemployment, vicious poverty cycle, persistent political thuggery and hooliganism.

“It has been able to sustainably enhance livelihood among these marginalized groups and restored hope in them. It is worth celebrating throughout our nation, Nigeria.

“Our primary focus is on production of maize, popcorn, soya beans, sorghum, rice, oil palm seedlings, assorted seedlings, orchard crops, orchard plantations, bee keeping poultry, rabbit, piggery, fish farming, tie and dye, liquid soap and yoghurt.”

Speaking further, the principal said, “In Kaduna State, more than 5,000 youths both regular trained farmers and short training courses participants whose agricultural capacities have been viably developed are now economically and productively useful, not only to themselves but also to the nation.”

Director of Planning and Evaluation at the Kaduna Agricultural Development Agency, Mr. Danjuma Tyuka, commended the foundation for the meritorious service to the state.

He however urged the current and past trainees of the school to take advantage of state government’s friendly ease of doing business policy to establish agric businesses in the state, saying that, only 2.935 million hectares out of Kaduna’s 4.5 million land mass is presently under cultivation.