From Austine Tule, Makurdi
Former Managing Director, Nigerian Export and Import (NEXIM) Bank, Chief Roberts Orya, has lauded the management of the Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi on its 23rd-25th Convocation Ceremony which took place at the University’s Campus at the weekend.
The AUTHORITY gathered that the event also featured the conferment of honorary degrees on deserving Nigerians.
Orya in a chat with newsmen at the event said the philosophy behind the establishment of the Federal University in the state was to encourage innovative and revolutionary approaches towards agricultural research and improved extension services.
He added another aim for its establishment was to train human resources with a view to promoting productivity giving the huge potentials in agriculture with which the state was blessed with.
He said the University’s focus on agriculture extension, veterinary sciences; agricultural economics, rural sociology and Home economies, agricultural engineering and technology, basic sciences is aimed at providing adequate training and research for young graduates and entrepreneurs who would become self sustained as managers and effective drivers in the agricultural sub economy thus deflate unemployment in the state and Nigeria at large.
Orya, who is a 2023 Governorship aspirant in Benue State, emphasized that as a technocrat and investment expert, he was poised to utilize agriculture as a productive and valued field for trade and commerce by first encouraging mechanized and irrigation farming to add value, create wealth, jobs and feed the nation and the world at large.