The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) has announced plans to engage 77,400 young Nigerians for the purpose of full-time farming.
The Executive Secretary of NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne, who resumed office on Monday told journalists in a briefing that 100 youths would be chosen from each of the 774 local government areas in a transparent manner that will involve no godfathers or third parties.
Ikonne said the youths would be trained and empowered to go into full-time agriculture which involves crop farming -with emphasis on environmentally friendly crops – and animal husbandry.
While thanking President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing him, Ikonne commended the President’s vision in insisting that the country achieves self-sufficiency in food production, which is the major reason he is bringing the agency back to life.
Ikonne added that Nigerians must key into the President’s patriotic agenda of ensuring self sufficiency in food production.
He said part of the agency’s mandate is to bring agriculture back to reckoning by first ensuring that the country produces what the citizens eat and also transform the sector from old peasant farming into a mechanized foreign exchange earner for the country.
He added that the Nigerian economy must be driven on the basis of self-reliance and self-sustenance in food production and NALDA under his watch is ready to lead the charge.
Ikonne assured of NALDA’s readiness to work with all stakeholders including governors, international organizations, traditional institutions and so on, to ease the fulfilment of its mandate.
The NALDA boss also declared open the agency’s website and urged young Nigerians to register for free and stand a chance to be among the 77,400 ‘Buhari Young Farmers’
Ikonne is a former Commissioner for Lands (2007-2008) and later Commissioner for Works and Transport (2008 – 2009) in Abia state.
His appointment was confirmed last week by the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, to bring back to life an organization that has become moribund for nearly two decades.
NALDA was first established by Decree No. 92 of 1992 by the Ibrahim Babangida regime but was scrapped in 2002.
