Our citadel is unique in giving agric skill- Acting Vice Chancellor, Landmark University.

I am Prof. Joseph Olasehinde Afolayan, the Acting Vice Chancellor, Landmark University, Omuo-Aran, Kwara state.

In the face of food security cum increasing population and limited youths to replace older farmers with modern technologies, what role is your university playing in all these to mitigate challenges?

Well, the focus of the university is agriculture, and by this, the intension is that whatever the numbers of programme we run within the university, every stakeholder in the system is encouraged to be involved in agriculture. Currently we have three colleges in the university which are agricultural sciences, business and social sciences and collage of science and engineering. All the student and staff of these colleges are always engaged in farming or any other agricultural practices. 

We do not leave the students of college of agricultural science alone to farming practice, but all students have to be involved as an entrepreneurship skill acquisition. We have just expanded our scope of agricultural activities for this omega semester from once in week to every other day of the week for each level of the student from hundred to five hundred levels together with their staff from early morning of 7am to 10 am- Monday to Friday. 

This will give more involvement to every student and staff in the agricultural skill and practices. In the farm, they will be exposed to different aspect of farming like crops, animal husbandry, rabitary, piggery, snailery, sheep and goat, poultry, and fishery. Also we have planned to encourage all staff in the university to get involved especially those who are accommodated on campus, their backyard should be used for gardens to plant vegetables, bananas or any other citrus crops.

How would you describe the theme of the conference as regards food security?

The conference theme is very excellent and this is appropriate at this time due to challenges we have in agriculture as soil is very important even when there are availability of green houses. For effective agriculture, you need to know the nature of soil you are planting on thereby ensuring appropriate crops for the right type of soil and steps to be taken in order to improve the quality of the soil for maximum utilization. 

A conference like this will proffer solutions to challenges of soil and climate change as a lot of heads who are coming together from different background will rub minds and share their experiences which I believe at the end of the programme will be of benefit to the entire agricultural practice as regards food security in the country.