The National Committee of Heads of Colleges of Agriculture and Related Disciplines (NACHCARD) has appealed to the federal government to reconsider its plan of leasing available lands in their institutions for food production.
In its 65th Regular Meeting in Abuja, the National Committee welcomed the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS)’s request for information on available land for food production in the colleges.
The committee emphasized the need for the ministry to provide funds and inputs to the colleges instead of leasing their lands to third parties to prevent the eventual encroachment by land grabbers.
It also advised the FMAFS to utilise and patronise the colleges for training in agriculture and executing farmers’ and extension workers’ programmes.
The communiqué read, “We observed with dismay the reduction in students’ intake into colleges of agriculture recently as a result of lowering of JAMB cutoffs for universities and the increasing number of polytechnics mounting agricultural courses.”
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”The committee is of the opinion that if the trend continues, it would not only undermine the basis for creating the colleges in the first place but also jeopardise the government’s efforts at encouraging youths to take up agriculture as a business, as well as the food security efforts of the government.
The committee also called on the government to inaugurate the board of NADFUND for speedy operational commencement to enhance the effectiveness of the emergency declared on food security.
It also advocated that agricultural colleges at federal and state levels be given top priority in fund allocation as these colleges were erroneously excluded from tertiary institutions enjoying TetFund intervention since 2010.
NACHCARD observed that application portals of some government agencies, especially military and paramilitary, do not include the names of Monotechnics in the list of tertiary institutions in the country, thereby denying our graduates who are qualified the opportunity to participate in their recruitment exercises and appealed for inter-ministerial dialogue to resolve the issue.
