’’It finally came true’’, these were the words I said
to myself as the activities of the day ended. Over
the past months myself and another YPARD
member in Kogi State Nigeria: Apeh Omede who
happens to also be a staff at Kogi State University in
the Department of Animal Production, had planned a
YPARD Awareness with the support of YPARD
Country representative for Nigeria and Africa
Coordinator.
This awareness was critically needed as,
expressed by Apeh Omede, the students were
having a lack of interest in agriculture and some
have attempted to switch to other course of study.
Aside this, the students needed more enlightenment
on the benefits of becoming an agriculturist and the
“how” they can use ICT tools like social media to
develop themselves in the field of agriculture in
terms of access to information and research .
And so, on the 6th of February, 2013, 246 students
gathered together at the Lecture theatre of the
Faculty of Agriculture, Kogi State University to
attend the YPARD Awareness.
Interestingly, there are three agriculture based
bodies in the institution, namely:
1. The Nigerian Association of Agricultural
Student (NAAS),
2. International Association of Agricultural and
Related Sciences Student (IAAS)
which has the West Africa Director as a
student of the faculty and
3. The Agricultural Students Voluntary Club
(ASVC), an indigenous student organisation
founded by an alumnus of the institution.
All these bodies came together under the
supervision and direction of Apeh Omede to
mobilize the students to attend and be part of the
awareness.
The activities of the day covered a presentation on
the objectives of YPARD network and how
membership of the network can be optimized.
Special emphasis was placed on the need not to
just sign-up but instead be active members online
or on the ground . The students were encouraged to
follow up on activities of other YPs in the region and
worldwide by joining the Facebook groups and
following the twitter handle of the YPARD. A
representative of the Dean of the faculty was also
present to employ the youths to take seriously the
benefits of being part of a global network like that of
YPARD.
An open forum was also held on the theme “How
can the agriculture be promoted, marketed and
made attractive as a viable career for young
people?”. Here are some of the ideas of the youths:
Moses Amos – “Farmers should be well
recognized and respected in the society, thus
making agriculture a respectable career by the
young people”
Abuh Enema –“I will advice enlightenment
programs in Agriculture and also a need to desist
from discrimination of those who practice
agriculture”
Abdulrahman Sejimatu – “Government support,
enlightenment and knowing successful stories of
other young people in agriculture despite the
challenges would help’’
After a short break, the students enjoyed a two
hours session on how they can use Social Media in
their work as agriculturists. This session, the
students really enjoyed too as it seemed new to
majority of them.
In all, the outing was a beneficial one. Right before
the activities for the day ended, the few that had
internet enabled phones had signed up on the
YPARD website while others sent requests to join
both the YPARD and YPARD Nigeria facebook
groups.
The future is bright for these young people .They did
appreciate the new enlightenment they got and we
hope that we see more of them join the network as
active members in the coming weeks and months.
We also look forward to having a Local group and
representative from the institution as this is being
worked on.
In the meantime, arrangement would be made for
collaborations at local levels to have programs and
project carried out by the local group of the
institution in partnership with the other agricultural
bodies in the institution.
You can view more pictures from the event on this
album of the YPARD awareness.
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