NAN-AE-8
Livestock
By Chidinma Ewunonu-Aluko
Ibadan, Sept. 28, 2016 (NAN) Prof. James Adediran, the Executive Director, Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Ibadan, on Wednesday, urged livestock farmers to have areas of specialisation to make more profit.
Adediran, represented by the institute’s Deputy Director, Dr Ayodele Adegbite, spoke at the workshop organised by IAR&T, on ‘turning livestock farming into sustainable job creation and profitable business in a recessed economy.’
He noted that livestock comprised many areas such as poultry, piggery, snail, grass cutter production, etc, stressing the need for the farmers to specialize in a particular area.
“Join associations, cooperatives to make more profit, make farming a business, not a project; agriculture can create jobs, engage youths to be functional and self reliant,” Adediran said.
Speaking on the topic, a pig scientist at IAR&T, Dr Akinyemi Adesehinwa urged farmers to invest in the opportunities provided by livestock, adding that it was profitable and loaded.
“Poultry alone has opportunities. We have production of eggs, day-old chicks, broiler meat, etc; piggery too has a lot of value chains likewise others.
“We need to invest in livestock so that we will be employers of labour rather than employees.
“Only old people still engage in agriculture, where are the young ones? We should not be blaming everything on the government; we should play our own roles too.
“We can help to solve our problems by engaging in agriculture- it is able to turn our lives around positively as well as that of the country at large,” Adesehinwa said.
Earlier, the IAR&T Head of Livestock Programme, Dr Adeboye Omole, said the essence of the training was to improve production of livestock in the south-west and the country at large.
Omole urged the farmers to make best use of the opportunity given by the training to improve on their production and thanked the management of the institute for their support.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the highlights of the events include presentation of awards to some individuals for promoting agriculture and livestock in Nigeria. (NAN)
CC/ORO/AFA
Edited by Razak Owolabi.Felix Ajide
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