Northern College of Science and Technology wins award in agriculture

The Northern College of Science and Technology was adjudged the Best Educational Institution in Agriculture at the 39th annual Farmers Day celebration in Yendi, in the Northern Region.

For its prize, the school received a certificate, farm inputs and safety gears among other items.

It would also receive extension services and training from the Municipal Department of Agriculture.

Formally known as 7 As, the school which is known for its academic excellence, is also into fish farming in tilapia and cat fish as the major species.

It also rears about 170 livestock, 400 guinea fowls and 70 turkeys.

 In addition, the school has large acres of rice, maize and vegetable farms.

Pacesetters

Presenting the award to the school at the event in Yendi last Friday, the Yendi Municipal Chief Executive, Ahmed Yussuf Abubakar, described the school as pacesetters in exposing students to agricultural activities in the municipality.

He congratulated them on championing agriculture practices in the municipality and admonished other schools to emulate their example.

Some of the students on the school farm

The chief executive urged them to also include agricultural practices in their curricula to enable students develop interest in agriculture.

He said it would help reorient them to tap into opportunities available in the sector not only for their personal benefit, but the nation as a whole. 

Rationale

For his part, the founder of the school, Nathan Adams Junior, explained that the school started farming in 2013 to help feed the students and also reduce the operational cost in the running of the institution.

Aside from that, he said exposing the students to agriculture would also whip up their interest to venture into the sector in the near future to create jobs for themselves.

Mr Adams said given the poverty situation in the area, most of the students were unable to pay their tuition and feeding fees, for which reason they adopted the initiative to help feed them free of charge.

"Currently, we are able to provide eggs for each child every day, while we sell the rest to the public to make money to supplement other needs.

“We have also expanded our farm which has enabled us to make more harvest and money to run our school activities," he added.

The founder, however, mentioned inadequate farm machinery as some of their major challenges in their activities, saying "last year the school and other farmers in area lost valuable amount of rice because we could not get combine harvesters".

He, therefore, appealed to the government to retool existing farm centres and also set up new ones to help boost agriculture in the municipality.

Appreciation

The school prefect, Aniwaba Jessica, who received the award on behalf of the college, expressed appreciation for the recognition of their hard work.

She said the school would continue to farm to feed themselves and the Yendi municipality, adding that farming had become a hobby for most of them because of the fun session the school had incorporated into the activity.