College Mechanized Farm |
*My accusers are
malicious, says provost
Few days to the 98th anniversary of the Federal
College of Agriculture, Moore Plantation, Ibadan, there has been disquiet
between the college provost, staffs and students. While the accusers allege that
since the arrival of the provost, Engr. (Dr) B.A Adelekan the college had been
in deplorable condition, as most of the college’s businesses, facilities and structures such as the college
garri processing unit, the bakery, fisheries unit, amongst others, have become
rundown due to poor management of the college by inexperienced hands.
The
provost has disagreed vehemently with his accusers saying that they were just
being malicious.
One of the students who spoke
with FoodfarmNews on condition of
anonymity said that most of their practical classes have been turned into
theory classes as there were no materials provided by the college for practical
which is part of the core mandate of the institution.
He added that the negligence of
the relevant authorities have made students lazy to learning and that because nothing
is working in the college student no longer want to come to the school.
Another student who agreed to
speak with our correspondent said as an extension student he is ashamed to say
that he could not drive a tractor, saying he wondered how he was expected to
reach out to the farmers at the grassroots who would need technical information
as regard training or rendering of extension services to farmers who needs
their services and prayed the federal government comes to the aid of the
institution to rectify the situation.
One of the staffs who did not want his name mentioned said that the
institution had totally deviated from its mandate, thereby leaving the students
to suffer from fear that agricultural experts might not emerge from the
institution, if nothing is done urgently to remedy the current problems of non
functionality of college facilities and lack of utilization of the colleges
potentials as regards to sufficient food production.
He disclosed that over 80 hectares of land is at Onifufu lying to be
exploited by the college for agricultural utilization has currently been
underutilized since 2015 adding that the abandoned 80 hectares of land had been
used in previous years for the planting and harvesting of dried dehusked maize:”
In 2010, 640kg dried dehusked maize was harvested, in 2011, 1200kg, and 2720kg
in 2013,” he said.
He further disclosed that ten hectares of Jatropha farm is lying
unattended to, due to the negligence of the present hands and noted that the
Jatropha was planted since 2013 which was already due for harvest by 2015, but
had been left untouched.
He added that the plantation could be harvested yearly, exported or
rather converted to fuel or biogas, with residual cake that can be used for
fish or animal feed and high quality fertilizer, as well as for extensive
research, funded by the management.
Another staff said it was high time for government to extensively look
into the activities of the college to stop the current diminishing of the
institutes values, stating that the college, known for the high production of
oil palm is no longer, a leading player in palm oil production as the one
hectare of oil palm for demonstration and oil palm processing is currently
generating little or no oil.
He said that the small quantity of
the products produced currently from the farm cannot be compared to the 15 x
25litres kegs generated before now and that there was no more vegetable production
in the college, which had never been experienced before the arrival of the Dr.
Adelekan.
He said the workable dry season
vegetable garden equipped for successful cultivation facilities in dry season
was now totally unexploited.
Foodfarmnews further spoke with another staff of the college who
confirmed that the college no longer
produce oil palm seedlings, cashew plant seedlings and other seedlings
previously generated by the college at commercial rate.
She disclosed that for quite some time now people no longer order for
eggs because the pens with capacity of
800 layers , 2000 broilers and daily egg generation of 250-300 crates, when the
pens were active, had been empty for a while now without any hope of being
revamped.
She stress that the college is not
just experiencing empty egg pens but is
also experiencing empty piggery pens due to poor management of the pen and the
starvation of the pigs adding that the piggery pens initially held 200-250
piglets, 50-60 breeders and growers that were weekly slaughtered, packaged and
sold commercially.
It was also gathered that most
part time students have withdrawn from the various courses for lack of
confidence in the college authorities and that people who questioned the management
style of the provost, have either been placed on suspension or replaced at
their point of duty with inexperienced hands who have joined in running down
the institution.
A source told Foodfarmnews that
even though N9 million had been spent on Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) in the college, there was almost nothing to show for it.
When contacted, the provost who
denied all allegations said that the statements made by the students and staffs
were malicious, explaining that the major challenge of the institution had been
inadequate funding, which has led to non-performance of the college.
He added that the student always do
practical during their course of study in the college, adding that in spite of
the little funding allocated to the college, the college had been able to make
remarkable achievements which include the ongoing construction of a clinic, are
seen, displayed and commented by the students on the college e-portal.
Many who spoke with Foodfarmnews
also made reference to the previous administration under the leadership of Dr.
Mrs. Oluwatoyinbo, who they believe repositioned the college, as various
departments experienced high productivity.
Some of the
respondents called for a panel to be set up to audit the affairs of the college
and the legislative committees on agricultural colleges to perform their
oversight duties on the institution.
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