An Ibadan Chief, Olooye Adegboyega Taofeek Adegoke has declared that universities offering agriculture in the country have no business in buying food items from outside.
Adegoke who is the Aare Egbe Omo Balogun of Ibadanland made this declaration at the weekend shortly after he was conferred with a distinguished alumni award by the faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife.
The event which was held within the premises of the institution was part of the 13th Faculty of Agriculture’s Lecture and Awards with the theme: “Mitigating Rising Food Prices: The Underlying Issues”, delivered by Dr. Adetunji Oredipe, Senior Agricultural Economist from World Bank.
Adegoke while speaking noted that universities where agricultural science is offered should not be buying food items from outside.
He maintained that the university community should be buying foodstuffs from the faculty at affordable prices and not from outside the campus.
He added that this will help to reduce food importation, food scarcity and hunger in the country.
Adegoke used the occasion to donate N20M which he said must be tailored towards the resuscitation of the Faculty Teaching and Research Farm.
Speaking after receiving the award, Olooye Adegoke said he felt happy and elated that his little contributions to the Faculty and the University was recognized.
Adegoke while speaking further urged governments at all levels to take agriculture seriously.
He added that the issue of continuous increase in food prices will be a thing of the past if there are enough coming from the farms.
He concluded by encouraging every individuals to go into cottage farming.
“Farming is key. Sustainable farming is key to the development of any country, because if you cannot feed your citizens why are you in existence as a country.
“Therefore, farming is key and we have to encourage our people to farm. Like this Faculty of Agriculture, I expect that the faculty should be the one feeding the University Community. The faculty should set different days for the selling of produce and other farm products to the University community. Let’s say Monday for livestocks, Tuesday for Gari, Wednesday for Fish, Thursday for Eggs and Friday for vegetables et cetera.
“The University community should be buying foodstuffs from the Faculty at affordable prices not from outside the campus. That is the way to go . What are they doing with the farm? If they lack resources, they should let us know. That is why I donated N20M for the resuscitation of the farm.
“Likewise too, the country should also take the issue of farming more seriously, so that there can be food security. The issue of continuous increase in food prices will be a thing of the past if there are enough coming from the farms. I want to encourage every individuals to go into cottage farming while well to do and governments at all level should invest more on mechanised farming to tackle the issue of food shortage”.
The Dean Faculty of Agriculture, Professor A.A. Tijani said that the award bestowed on Adegoke is in recognition of his numerous generous donations and projects executed in the Faculty of Agriculture.