By 
Abiodun OBA
The Acting Rector of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Dr Adeoye Odedeji, says the institution;s proposed N5 million department of agricultural technology will equip students to be consultants to agric stakeholders.
Odedeji who stated this when a group known as Ogun State Journalists in Agriculture recently paid him a courtesy visit at his office, added that such consultancy would guide them toward enhancing food security in the state and Nigeria as a whole.
The acting rector, who lamented that paucity of funds had hindered the school from establishing the department, said the institution was liaising with the state government through the Ministry of Agriculture to make the dream a reality.
He said the creation of the department was capital intensive, which includes procuring tractors, bulldozers, harvester, among other expensive agricultural equipment that were needed to teach the students modern agricultural technology.
Odedeji said, “It is a proposal that we want to implement, we discovered that the money to implement it is huge. For example, for you to establish that department, you must have a tractor, a bulldozer, a grader and a harvester; these are some agricultural implements that are capital intensive.”
“So we may be thinking about N5 million to put it in place. It cannot just be one department, we will have agricultural engineering, agricultural technology, fishery, the total complement for it to be functional, and that is why we have a set-back in our situation.
“When the system becomes robust it is a good project to implement and we have already commenced by allowing the Minister of Agriculture to have that plantation so that we can use it as a demonstration farm.
“The more agricultural students you train, the more people will become interested in agriculture and even if they do not go into agriculture they become consultants. They can consult for people in agric business; that is why we have the department for agric extension and rural development.”
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