Secondary school students in the Start Them Early Programme from five schools in Oyo State have described the STEP agricultural initiative organised recently in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, CGIAR and the Oyo State Government as a platform for attracting learners to agriculture for food security.
They gave their opinions at the sidelines of the 2021 STEP Schools Agri-Competition held at the Conference Centre of the IITA, Ibadan, where six winners emerged from six enterprise fields of Value Addition, Aquaculture, Poultry, Information and Communication Technology, Science, and Crop and Mechanization.
The participants came from Fashola Grammar School, Fashola; UMCA Grammar School, Igbeti; Iresa Adu High School, Ogbomoso; Bishop Phillips Academy, Iwo Road, Ibadan; and Methodist High School, Challenge, Ibadan.
A winner at the event, Oladipupo Abdumalik, SS3 student of Methodist High School, Ibadan, described it as enriching, stating that “STEP group came to our school to introduce it to us. We were told to take a test. I wrote the test and I was selected to come for the competition. It was tough and I was anxious. I was excited when I was told that I won. This is the first time I am representing my school in any competition.
“My advice to my co-students is to be serious with their studies and not be too playful. The programme has a positive effect on us.”
Another winner, Shittu Amotu Shaefi, an SS2 student from Iresa Adu High School, Iresa Adi, who expressed hope on the prospect of STEP, said, “I was auditioned to participate in this competition, so I worked hard. I am happy for the opportunity given to us to participate. My advice to fellow students is that they should work hard.”
Olubodun Challot Oluwadamilola, SS2 student of UMCA High School, Igbeti, said, “We took a test five weeks after we were introduced to the programme. I was elated to be a winner. I am very happy and grateful to God for helping me.
“When other students see this kind of opportunity, they should try to utilise it.”
Also another winner, Adeboye Oluwafemi Michael, SS3 student of Methodist High School, Ibadan, stated that although it was not easy for him to emerge as a winner in the programme, the experience was a great addition. “I didn’t want to misuse the opportunity, while at the same time, I didn’t want it to affect my school work, so I hard to work hard. It took the whole of me so much that my mates called me Captain Step,” he said.
Larinde Bolanle, Coordinator of STEP in Oyo State, said that “This programme is aimed at changing the mindset of students towards agriculture; we want them to see it as very interesting.
“We noticed that we don’t have competitions like this for Agriculture among schools, but we have for English Language and Mathematics and other science subjects. That was how the initiative came up to be able to encourage students to see that Agriculture is a good field.”
On what encouraging students to take interest in agriculture portends for Nigeria as a country, she said that “This is a profitable venture and it would help the students to see agriculture business as a career path to venture into. It might not even be their main career; but it can be a second source for them.
“We see that employment opportunities are very limited these days, but if they have something to do outside white collar job, why not. It would also increase food security for us.”
STEP was inaugurated in Fasola, Oyo State in 2020. STEP uses a model that allows the students and teachers to receive relevant and responsive practical training in modern agriculture and agribusiness management while improving the school agriculture curriculum and learning modules.
In recognition of the importance of the programme, the Oyo State Government adopted the model and scaled it to the geopolitical zones in the state at the inception of the STEP-Oyo Project.
The project involves rehabilitation of school facilities to enable a suitable learning environment as well as provide training that would arm secondary school students with knowledge and skills in agribusiness.
STEP adopts a training model that focuses digital agriculture approach; experiential learning approach; school extracurricular club approach; and the youth outreach approach in response to the agribusiness needs of young people and create mechanism to improve the existing agriculture instruction in secondary schools.
