Sometime in the month of August 2024, thenews hit the airwaves that, the Kwara State Polytechnic, a higher institution in the Middle belt region in Nigeria harvested about 25 tonnes of maize from its farm. This was estimated for the value of N30m which amounts to approximately 20, 000 USD, according to the market survey.
The Rector of the institution, Dr Abdul-Jimoh Mohammed, who disclosed this, recounted how the institution turned its land encroachment challenge into a blessing.
He added that the farm’s cassava yield would give an estimated 180 tonnes when harvested later in the year.
According to him, “Today, we are harvesting our first farm produce and I believe it is necessary to make it public.
“It’s our response to the challenge by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq to maximise the potential of the institutions and we intend to sustain the process,” he said according to Related News
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Speaking during the harvest of the farm yields on Thursday, Mohammed said “With the effort of the management and support of the Ministry of Tertiary Institutions, we have been able to reduce the level of encroachment through the farming initiative.
“We began by engaging in commercial farming. We deploy this initiative to reduce the vacant land, discourage encroachment and make food available and affordable to members of the polytechnic communities and Kwarans.
“We started by cultivating 20 hectares, although we initially cleared 10 hectares and another 10 hectares later with the planting of cassava and maize and we will also plant soybeans towards the end of the rainy season, as advised.
“Come next rainy season, the management is planning to cultivate another 20 hectares and we are also considering leasing spaces for farming to interested members of the public.
“Although we are still working on the modality for this arrangement, the management will forward whatever modality we agreed on to the governor who has been encouraging us on this initiative through our supervising ministry.”
This good newscomes in the midst of the continous challenge of the terrorist Boko Haram marauding all over the place and making life miserable for farmers and making it a life and death situation for them to carry on with their activity.
Reactions from extremely impressed Nigerians to this quite successful venture has been overwhelming. One of the social media responses put it succingtly thus Imagine we have 500 institutions key into this agricultural approach. We will have 12,500 tonnes of maize, and we are looking at N15 billion naira.
Just academic institutions alone. This is absolutely impressive.
