Food Security: Group to Train Youths on Agricbusiness in Kwara

Some young agricultural experts in Kwara State, under the aegis of the Heart and Capital Limited on Tuesday said they train about 4,000 youths every year on agricultural business initiatives.

The initiative, according to them, was to boost food production and enhance the economic growth in the state.

The president and co-founder of the organisation, Mr. Abdulquawiy Olododo, who stated this in Ilorin, at the launch of its new agricultural business project called ‘Eterno” said that the training of the young farmers was done in partnership with tertiary institutions on agribusiness as parts of efforts to promote agriculture among youth in the state.

He said that, the move was also to encourage youths especially the unemployed ones to venture into agriculture to be gainfully employed and enrich the nation’s economy especially in food security.

Olododo, said, “Eterno project being launched today is planned to reduce unemployment, improve economic life of people and promote afforestation through planting of cashew and other cash crops, using climate change methods.”

He stressed that, “We partner with several tertiary institutions among. Kwara state University (KWASU) is our first partner. We get to train about 4,000 youth, young farmers every year on opportunities in agribusiness.

“We are young and we can understand language comprehensible to young adults. Agriculture had gone beyond hoes and cutlasses, farming and waiting for harvest.

“A whole value chain exists from planting to processing, marketing and others that our youth should be part of”.

Olododo added that, innovative agricultural startup in cashew investment, called eterno programme, allows individuals and corporate bodies to have direct access to returns from a cashew plantation over a period of 20 years, using modern technology to build a bridge between the farm and the investors, while ensuring the most efficient production for great returns. He said individuals could invest in one unit of cashew tree for as low as N10, 000.

“One thing that sets Eterno apart is the robust return on a one-time investment that spans a period of 20 years. Interestingly, investors will not only start earning returns in the first year, they will also earn as high as 30 per cent in the first three years.

“On Eterno, investors’ capitals are guaranteed because there are fully insured. What we have done is to digitalize the investment through our integrated investment platform, Assetmart, which allows investors monitor and evaluate their investment at any given time”, he said.

Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Umar Oba Adelodun, said, “As an investor, you are not only earning returns on your investment, you will also be contributing to something bigger by mitigating social and environmental factors affecting Nigeria and the world at large such as unemployment and climate change”.

Adelodun enjoined students, young school leavers, other Nigerian youth and big investors to take advantage of the investment opportunity to create wealth for themselves.