NAN-AE-2
Jobs
Abuja, April 7, 2017 (NAN) Dr Yakubu Ugolawo, President, National Agricultural Production Cooperative Union of Nigeria (NAPCUN), says the union will create jobs for youths by facilitating their involvement in agricultural production via cooperative schemes.
Ugolawo said this on Friday in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He said that the move was to facilitate the fulfilment of the Federal Government’s Green Alternative programme, while providing employment opportunities and boosting food security in the country.
Ugolawo said that NAPCUN was conceived to be a tool for revamping the Nigerian agricultural sector and addressing the current economic challenges facing the country.
He said that the relevance of cooperative societies in agricultural schemes had received a globally recognition, adding that Nigeria should also make pragmatic efforts to key into the new tradition in its efforts to overhaul its agricultural sector.
He recalled that the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbe, during the launch of the Green Alternative programme in 2016, said that the funds allocated to agriculture in that year’s budget could be best accessed through cooperative societies.
“The union will build cooperative societies around people who know each other, so that their knowledge of one another will be the prerequisite for engendering cohesion, harmony and accountability among members.
“The vision is to be drivers in the new economic diversification policy direction of the Federal Government through agricultural production by being great food producers to enhance food security and economic recovery,’’ he said.
Ugolawo reiterated that the union would aid the realisation of the core objectives of the agricultural initiatives of the Federal Government, including the Green Alternative scheme, though the active participation of cooperative societies across the country.
He, nonetheless, said that the main focus of NAPCUN operations would include crop production, animal husbandry and agro-processing. (NAN)
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