The Kwara state Polytechnic, Ilorin, has devised ways to protect its land, discourage and evict the land encroachers.
The institution has begun to use its land for commercial farming and it has already ventured into maize and cassava farming and currently making use of 20 hectares of land.
The flag off of the harvest exercise was done on Thursday by the Rector, Dr Abdul Jimoh , who disclosed that the sum of N13 million had since been committed to the project.
Dr Abdul Jimoh noted that the polytechnic has taken a decision to embark on aggressive farming this year to make encroachers keep off its land as well as contribute to the effort to address food inflation in the country.
‘What led to this idea is to find a way of discouraging or curbing encroachers, thereby utilizing our land for agricultural purposes so that we can make food available and affordable for the polytechnic community, surrounding communities and the state at large.
We cleared 10 hectares of land initially, when we finished the first ten hectares, we moved to the second phase of another ten hectares of land, making it twenty hectares all together.
The farming is carried out by the Department of Agricultural Technology, Department of Agric Engineering and bio Environmental, under the supervision of a Committee’ he said.
Dr Jimoh added that part of the proceeds would be ploughed back into farming, while the remaining one would be used as internally generated revenue for the institution.
‘We used about N10,000,000 for clearing of the land and about N3,000,000 was used to purchase the seedlings and cassava stems’ Dr Jimoh said.
The Rector also disclosed that the institution is also planning to introduce a system that will allow the polytechnic have tenant farmers while noting that priority will be given to workers at the institution.
In her remarks, Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Dr Mary Arinde ,who was represented by the Director of Research and Development in her ministry, Hajia Rodhiat Yahaya, commended the foresight of the institution submitting that the initiative would go a long way in helping to address food inflation in the state .
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She added that the initiative will also address the encroachment challenges being faced by the institution.
Samuel Florence and Aina Ebenezer Ayobami , who are HND 1 students at the Department of Agricultural Technology, and participated in the harvest exercise, described the experience as worthwhile noting that away from the ‘theory’ that they have been taught in the class, they could see things for themselves-Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com. Thank you
