AGRICULTURE:Aregbesola leads delegation to Germany

Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun state has
led a delegation to Germany in search of new
insights on modern agriculture in order to
further realise the dream of making Osun
the food basket of the South West.
This, the administration believes will help
empower citizens and improve the quality of
life for residents in the state.
On Saturday, the Ogbeni-led delegation
stopped at Lindau, in the district of Anhalt-
Bitterfeld, Germany. Ogbeni Aregbesola went
with series of questions about modern
agriculture, hoping for new insights from
German farmers like Arnold de Vries who the
Governor visited on his sheep farm.
Osun state Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola
alongside his delegates with German farmer,
Arnold de Vries
Arnold de Vries had taken-in two interns
from Osun State for training on his farm in
the summer of 2016.
Osun, is an agricultural state and
significantly larger than Saxony-Anhalt, but
modern agriculture is still a long shot and
the Governor’s team is ambitious to close
the gap.
That is why the project “Support for Capacity
Building in Food Production” was launched
in 2012 between States of Saxony-Anhalt in
Germany and Osun in Nigeria, for youths of
the state to undergo internships in modern
agricultural enterprises in Saxony-Anhalt.
Well over 40 Nigerians from the state of
Osun have already benefited from this
scheme.
This was confirmed by Ogbeni Aregbesola
during his visit to Bauer de Vries in Lindau.
“We have to feed our population somehow,
and effective agriculture, as it is done here
in Germany, can help us,” he said.
His visit to Saxony-Anhalt is a kind of
educational trip. However, the trip is also
intended to thank the farmers who took
interns in for hands-on training.
The administration has invested heavily in
laying the foundations for modern
agriculture in the state, and lies in wait for
bountiful harvest. Recall that Ogbeni
Aregbesola recently ordered the planting of
5 million plantain suckers in the state of
Osun as a means of providing food for the
citizenry.
Governor Rauf Aregbesola was accompanied
by Speaker of the State of Osun House of
Assembly, Rt. Hon. Najeem Saleem, amongst
other top government officials.