Prof. Olusola Kehinde, Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), asserted that the university is capable of feeding the entire nation if certain steps are taken to counteract the challenges to food security that have been identified.
Kehinde stated that the more than 10,000 hectares of land bequeathed to the university is fertile enough to ensure food security for the nation, specifically mentioning threats to farming in the university such as lack of funding, theft of farm produce, shortage of labour, and lack of necessary equipment to go into mechanised farming.
The statement was made by the VC during a press conference that was conducted yesterday in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, to celebrate the institution’s 31st convocation, which is set to take place on Saturday.
According to Kehinde, the institution has taken action to revitalise the agricultural sector in a way that will produce sufficient supplies for the entire nation.
He declared that the school was dedicated to teaching practical agriculture and gave the explanation that 10,200 hectares of land were provided by the institution to fulfil this goal.
According to Kehinde, the university is working with the national, state, and local governments as well as other corporate organisations to develop virgin land on campus so that it can make its share of contributions to easing the nation’s food scarcity problems.
He said the institution, in line with the vision of President Bola Tinubu’s administration of tackling food security headlong, has reactivated staff farming schemes and allocated farm lands to interested staff.
“We have started commercial production of plantain suckers using micro and macro propagation techniques. We have also embarked on commercial production of fish fingerlings, juveniles and table size. Also we have commenced commercial production of broilers for frozen chicken just as we have also been producing rabbits in commercial quantities”.