By Titus Mangut

Nasarawa State Government has put in place plans to expand the existing programmes and activities of College of Agriculture, Lafia, to meet up with the challenges of modern agriculture, especially how to overcome global food crisis.

The state commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Alhaji Mohammed Egye Iyimoga stated this last week while declaring open the 34th Regular meeting of the National Committee of Heads of Agriculture and Related Discipline (NACHCARD) held at the College of Agriculture, Lafia.

He said Nasarawa State was an agrarian state and would support the activities of experts in the field of agriculture.

Thecommissioner represented by the permanent secretary, Mr. Peter Akaba urged heads of colleges of agriculture to explore new avenues for researches with a view to promoting agriculture so as to reduce overdependence on oil revenue for development.

Alhaji Iyimoga said government was aware of the programmes of NACHCARD and that the spirit behind the meeting was to cross fertilize ideas in pursuant of the mandate and objectives for establishing agricultural institutions in the country.

In his address, the provost, Nasarawa State College of Agriculture, Dr. Napoleon D. Saingbe, appealed to the Education Trust Fund (ETF) to increase funding to the monotechnics.

He also said that the increase of the fund should make provision for manpower development just like the Petroleum Development Trust Fund (PDTF).

He lamented the exclusion of graduates of Colleges of Agriculture from participating in the National Youth Service Corps, adding that NACHCARD would press government to as a matter of urgency reconsider this decision.