The Lagos State Government has announced that it will commence this year’s edition of the Y2020 Agricultural Youth Empowerment Scheme (Agric-YES) Summer School Programme for students in public Senior Secondary Schools across the six Education Districts in the State from Monday August 17 to Saturday 29 August, 2020.

Abisola Olusanya, the state’s acting Commissioner for Agriculture disclosed this on Friday.

Olusanya further disclosed the empowerment scheme would hold for two weeks adding that the scheme is aimed at encouraging senior secondary school students to embrace agriculture as a life-long career after their secondary education.

“The Agric–YES Summer School Programme aims to serve as a ‘taster’ programme for students who may wish to pick up a career in the agricultural value chain in future and eventually fill the vacuum being created by the ageing farmers”, Olusanya said.

She hinted that students in Secondary School (SSII) taking agricultural science as one of their selective subjects and their teachers drawn would participate in the scheme. With this, participants will understand that agriculture, when well-managed, is a reputable and profitable business venture as well as exposing them to theoretical and practical areas which would be covered by various invited facilitators and resource personnel in poultry production, fisheries, vegetable and crop production, agric business as well as climate change, among others.

“Due to the Coronavirus (COVID–19) pandemic and the need to discourage close physical interaction among students, teachers and other important stakeholders, this year’s Agric–YES Summer School Programme is taking place at the Lagos State Agricultural Development Authority, Oko-Oba, Agege. This arrangement shall replace the usual two-week residential on-farm Summer School Training within the Agric-YES premises in Araga, Epe.

“This programme aims to ensure that students excel in their Senior Secondary School examinations in Agriculture and eventually grow into a more productive labour force as adults, thereby solving to a reasonable extent the problem of unemployment and mitigating the possible effect of the global food crisis,” Olusanya said.