TheCable

Smart Adeyemi, senator representing Kogi west, says the establishment of a federal university of agriculture in Kabba is a step towards ending the farmer-herder crisis in the state and the country at large.

Speaking with reporters on Friday in Abuja, Adeyemi said young people will learn the skill and technology needed to set up ranches which will, in turn, reduce clashes between herders and farmers.

The bill to set up the university was passed by the national assembly in November 2020, and is awaiting the assent of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The legislator said a university of agriculture in Kabba will “accelerate” the country’s economic activities.

“I am appealing to the president to sign the bill into law. The federal university of agriculture we are proposing in Kabba is very important; first to accelerate Nigeria’s economic activities, and to raise young farmers to take a career in agriculture,” the senator said.

“It will end farmer-herder clashes by producing more young graduates, who will know the technology that is required to set up modern cattle ranching. Also, we will be a nation that will be exporting and our currency can be strengthened.

“Presently, we have one federal university of agriculture in each geopolitical zone. The time has now come for the federal government to establish three federal universities of agriculture in each of the geopolitical zones.

“This is because in agriculture lies the strength of our currency as a nation. It is through agriculture that we can get millions of our graduates into farming, take them off the streets and make them productive.”