World Food Day: Lagos wants secondary students to go into agriculture

Lagos State acting commissioner for agriculture, Abisola Olusanya has urged secondary school students in the state to go into a more productive agricultural labour force as adults.

Olusanya made the call on Tuesday at the School Quiz Competition organised by her ministry as part of activities marking the Y2020 World Food Day celebration in Lagos State.

She said this has become imperative in order to solve the problem of unemployment, vacuums being created by the ageing farmers as well as mitigate the possible effects of global food crisis.

The acting commissioner noted that the importance of the agricultural quiz competition cannot be overemphasised as it aims to further stimulate the interest of students in agriculture as a subject.

“I am sure that all the students here are aware of the huge potentials that exist in Nigeria’s agricultural sector and the strategic position of the various stakeholders within the various agricultural value chains.

“Thus, the ministry of agriculture, through programmes such as this, intends to encourage the students to grow into a more productive agricultural labour force as adults thereby solving, to a reasonable extent, the problem of unemployment and vacuums being created by the ageing farmers, as well as, mitigating the possible effects of global food crisis.

“The importance of this agricultural quiz competition cannot therefore be overemphasised as it aims to further stimulate the interest of students in agriculture by assisting them to recall and imbibe information on various aspects such as improved agricultural techniques and innovations,” Olusanya explained.

The schools’ quiz competition was won by Ansarudeen Senior High School, Surulere while Ajara Senior Grammar School, Badagry came second and Abibat Mogaji Millennium Secondary School, Dopemu came third.