National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to establish a rice farm in Ebonyi state to boost food security in the country.
The rice farm would be established on a 52 hectares land owned by the NYSC in Ezillo, Ishielu Local Government Area of the state while NALDA would provide inputs and the technical know-how to develop the farm.
Speaking at the MoU signing ceremony, the Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of NALDA Prince Paul Ikonne said the authority is tapping into the vast resources that the NYSC has across the country to provide sufficient food for Nigerians and engage the Corps members to be more productive.
“NYSC has the foot soldiers and every year they churn them out while NALDA has the land and the technical know-how, this understanding is for the manpower and the technical know-how to come together in order to produce the much-needed job opportunity and food security that Mr. President has been advocating for, for the country,” Ikonne said.x
He noted that “Nigeria is in dare need of creating job opportunities and this collaboration will contribute to the country’s GDP growth because when there are idle youth, you would have youth restiveness but when they are engaged you would see effectiveness so our visit here today is to seal our understanding that we already have going forward.”
On the training of Corps members to be soil doctors, the ES said the first phase of the training was successful and NALDA is ready and willing to train more Corps members soonest.
On his part, the Director-General of the NYSC Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim said the NYSC’s human capital development is huge and there’s a need to tap into the potential in order to contribute meaningfully to national development.
He noted that the Corps members are skillful and ready to work if given the necessary support.
Ibrahim added that some Corps members who have benefited from some empowerment schemes of the Corps are doing very well on their own, managing their own businesses in their state of service comfortably without any form of harassment for the locals.
On the partnership, he noted that the NYSC is ready to commence work on the farm immediately by deploying tractors to site for land clearing while commending the NALDA boss for the good work he is doing.