Plateau State University has received a tractor donation from the State Government to strengthening its commitment to expanding agricultural training and production programs of the institution.
Vice Chancellor of the University Professor Shedrack Best while receiving the tractor from Commissioner of Agriculture Hon. Samson Ishaku Bugama onbehalf of the State Commended Governor Caleb Mutfwang for the donation, which aims to enhance the university’s agricultural capabilities.
Vice Chancellor Best highlighted the university’s agricultural resources, including a dam, the Agricultural Services and Training Corporation (ASTC), and vast land.
“Our young students will be excited to see these machines. They will use it for learning. It will motivate them and there are other agricultural resources around us,” said Prof. Best.
“We are a rural university and we are located at the hub of agriculture. A lot of farming activity takes place there,” Professor Best said.
“So whether it is in research or in actual tillage of land or in animal husbandry, in all the areas, when we bring our faculty of Agriculture which is young and ambitious and growing into place, we believe that we have a lot to contribute including to other agencies who have benefited today from this gesture,” Professor Best stated.
The Commissioner of Agriculture while handing over the tractor to the Institution said the donation is part of the Governor’s agricultural transformation plan, specifically the Agro Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscape Project.
According to him the initiative seeks to improve agricultural training and production across the state.
It would be recalled that Governor Mutfwang on January 20 expressed his administration’s commitment to mechanize agriculture in Plateau State, lamenting only 0.05% is currently mechanized.
“We aim to take away the hoes and cutlasses and bring technology to meet the food needs of Plateau State,”
He said the Governor has announced plans to acquire more tractors, power tillers, and establish state plantations to encourage youths in agriculture.
“Last year, we cultivated 6,000 hectares but this year we’re looking at cultivating 15,000 hectares for vulnerable communities, schools in particular. So one of the things His Excellency has asked us to do is to go around secondary schools and cultivate their land just so we can build interest in agriculture.
“But the first thing we need to do is strengthen the institutions that help our young people to learn agriculture and takeaway the drudgery that comes with agriculture,” he said.
The university was among five institutions to receive tractors donated by the World Bank. Despite receiving only one unit, the university’s excitement was palpable.
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