Notore targets schools to boost agribusiness

Notore Chemical Industries Plc

To redirect attention to agriculture as a proper business venture, Notore Chemical Industries, has taken the green revolution to schools with a view to changing the mindset of the younger generation on the importance of agriculture in the economy. By catching them young, Notore’s Green Schools Initiative, seeks to not only bolster Federal Government’s economic diversification through the green revolution and back-to-land initiative to return agriculture to its pride of place as the highest employer and contributor to Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP), and also the highest revenue earner instead of oil.
Recall that following the discovery of oil in commercial quantity in 1957, one of the segments of the economy that received the hardest hit was the agricultural sector, ultimately leading to the current food shortages in the country.
Agriculture had hitherto laid the foundation for Nigeria’s industrialisation, contributing the largest share to an economy that was experiencing very boisterous growth. Commercial farms blossomed and farming was seen and practiced as proper business.
However, after decades of abandoning agriculture, dwindling hydrocarbon revenue, and the need to revamp the economy has made going back to the farm a priority for governments and many other private actors looking to drive sustainable development.
The need to revamp agriculture is against the backdrop of the sector’s immense potential to absorb a large workforce. In fact, despite the low productivity, agriculture still accounts for two-thirds of Nigeria’s working population, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Unfortunately, there still exists the belief that farming is a profession for the poor and illiterate, and entails gruelling toil in the farmland with a pittance as returns. These notions have been fuelled over the years by lack of proper training for those who engage in agriculture, causing them to demonise and abandon the venture, with attendant mass youth exodus to the cities in search of white-collar jobs with jumbo pays, leading to an ageing farming population that is dying away gradually.
But through its Green Schools Initiative, Notore is changing the narrative by rallying stakeholders in the agricultural and educational sectors to expand secondary school curriculum with the intention to get students to practice agriculture in dedicated farmlands in their schools.