The Malete Youth Integrated Training Farm Centre established by the Kwara State Government was started in 2005 during the tenure of Governor Bukola Saraki. The initiative was a major plank of Saraki's agricultural revolution targeted at introducing the youth to commercial agriculture in order to productively engage them and reduce unemployment in the state.

Since its establishment, the centre located at Malete in Moro Local Government Area of the state has produced five sets of trainees, some of whom have been empowered to cultivate some hectares of farmlands at designated YITF Graduands Farm Settlements in Oke-Oyi, Alateko and Ayekale communities.

So far, 418 youths have been trained, with the first, second and third sets empowered and cultivated 1, 310 hectares of farmland in designated settlements. The fourth set of trainees who graduated in 2013 had their empowerment approved but funds are yet to be released, according to the former Senior Special Assistant on Agric Matters, Alhaji Mahmud Ajeigbe.

Also, the fifth batch of trainees from the centre was equally not empowered since they passed out in July, last year.

Though a novel initiative recognised and hailed by many stakeholders in the agricultural sector in the state, the objective of the centre has not been adequately and effectively achieved owing to paucity of funds to raise the trainees. 

Daily Trust gathered that the first set of youths known as New Generation Commercial Farmers who graduated from the scheme in 2008 got "reasonable" incentives to start off. They were given five hectares of farmland each, a motorbike to enable them move from their farm to their residences, and N850, 000 loan managed for them by the government.
Apart from this, no other form of assistance was received again from government.

A pioneer graduand, Mr. Kehinde Osasona described the initiative as one of the best things to happen to the state, and hailed the vision of former Governor Bukola Saraki in setting up the centre.

However, he said the problem of funding has been the main challenge, saying that N850, 000 is not enough. Osasona who planted cassava, maize and soya beans urged the government to continue to facilitate loan for them with a long moratorium to ease the burden of repayment. 

A graduate of Agronomy, Osasona explained that since his graduation in 2008, he has been trying to sustain his farm, adding, "well if any assistance should come from the government, it would be a welcome development. Government is supposed to be facilitating loan for us. They did one three years ago but nothing again since then. 

"On our part, we have been trying to sustain ourselves. But to get a bank to give us loan the problem with commercial banks is that they are not fond of giving loan except with unaffordable collateral. That is why we always clamour for government's assistance to facilitate such loan for us.

"The problem with some of the loans again is the issue of interest. An interest that one will not be able to comprehend even when the loan is being serviced. It is a kind of a big problem for up-comers like us, those of us who have no big capital," he said.

He also said, "another thing is the moratorium. Ordinarily if you want to get agricultural loan, you should have a moratorium of say six months, meaning that loan would not start reading interest until after six months. For God's sake, we are talking of farming; it is not like a business woman that travelled to Dubai to get fabric. Immediately she comes back, people would start buying. Farming is not like that. Before you even think of paying back, one and half years would have gone. This is why we have not been able to expand," he said.

For the subsequent batches, the situation is worst. They were given two hectares of land and N300, 000 loan each which the participants say is grossly inadequate to embark on any meaningful farming project. Members of the group equally planted cassava, maize and soya beans. It was gathered that even though they were tutored on the production of other crops, inadequate financing prevented them from veering into other areas. 

One of the youth farmers trained on fish farming said he could not embark on fishery because the N300,000 given to him as takeoff fund for the establishment of his farm project could not even build an artificial fish pond for him.

Speaking with Daily Trust, leader of the batch ‘B', Mumini Onimago said, "since we graduated, we faced a lot of challenges which included fire disaster which almost annihilated our farmlands. Though government is trying its best but farming is not like that. It is a capital intensive project."

He said the major difficulty they encounter is how to get modern equipment for enhanced agricultural production, adding, "for instance, we were trained using combined harvesters but we have no access to this modern machine after graduation. Besides, it is not easy to hire equipment and so on because owners of such equipment would say they are also using it by the time we would need it and this is bringing setback and causing delay in our activities", he said.

On his part, Mohammed Abdullahi, also a graduate of batch B noted that while they were promised five hectares of land, they ended up receiving two hectares with "a paltry" N300, 000 which he said was not enough to do much, adding. "On our own, we have been trying our best to sustain the farm. I have secured two additional hectares and will surely sustain that," he said.

Former Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Agric matters, Alhaji Mahmud Ajeigbe who oversees the centre said in an earlier interview that the fifth batch of trainees who graduated at the centre would be empowered by the state government.

Ajeigbe who said the youth farmers were to be empowered with credit facility of N200, 000 to N300,000 each by last September, could not however explain why government failed to fulfill its promise when contacted.

However, the Senior Special Assistant to the state governor on Media, Dr. Muideen Akorede, attributed the delay in providing funding for the graduands to non-release of funds by Union Bank for the commencement of the commercial farming schemes under Commercial Agric Credit Scheme (CACS) as agreed with the state government.

"It is not only the uptake farmers that are affected. The Malete graduands are also included but we are on top of it. Just recently his excellency had an interaction with the management of the bank which was very positive. In the first quarter of this year, 2014, we would be able to get the funds to those graduates. The scheme is on course," he said.

On the clamour for additional loans by the farmers, Akorede said, "when you give people loan, they need to turn it round, you retire it and borrow another one. You can't just take another loan when you have not accounted for the last one. But we will look at each case on its own merit."