Farming - Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero of Kaduna State has been urged to establish farm settlement centres and encourage the formation of young farmers clubs for graduates with special interests in farming.
Chairman of the Movement for a Better Kaduna State, Mallam Abdullahi Turaki, who made the call in a statement, said the only way to tackle the growing unemployment rate in the state is to encourage graduates to take to farming.
According to him, unemployed graduates with bias in agriculture should be encouraged to be become farm extension workers.
'Extension workers (Malaman Gona) are nowhere to be found, gone are those days when extension workers go round from one rural community to another offering services capable of increasing the productivity of rural farmers. The state is also lucky to have federal research institutes and centres such as the Leather and Chemical Research Institute in Zaria, National Lives stocks Kaduna, National Water Resources Institute, Division of Agricultural and Animal Production (ABU) Mando Kaduna. It is therefore time for the state government to enter into agreements with these centres for the benefit of youths in the state,' the group said.
By Ismail Mudashir
Daily Trust/04/03/2013