As part of efforts toward boosting town and gown relationship, the University’s Centre for Community Based Farming Scheme, (COBFAS), has sold fresh maize to scores of market women in the State.

The peasant traders who thronged the University farm to purchase maize cultivated by students of the institution, under the supervision of COBFAS, expressed satisfaction ‎over the quality of the maize and the entire process.

Giving an insight on the activities of the Centre, the Director of COBFAS, Professor Emmanuel Fakoya disclosed that the initiative is aimed at exposing students to practical processes of agriculture.

According to him, “the students have received series of trainings on crop production, livestock management, farm mechanisation, agricultural extension and economics” adding that the training received at COBFAS would enable them put into practice all they have learnt in the classrooms and make it possible for them to be able to establish their own farms in future.

The Director who disclosed that the sales was the second to be held within the last three months, the first being in August this year, said the exercise was almost marred by armyworm, but for proper management.

Professor Fakoya thanked the University Management for financing the scheme, urging it to provide more vehicles for the use of staff and students of the Centre.

Sharing her view on the exercise and Farm Practical Year (FPY), experiences, Miss Aminat Abdulahmid of the Department of Pasture and Range Management, College of Plant Science and Crop Production (COLPLANT) described the programme as a brilliant initiative of the University Management, which should be sustained because it gives students a better edge over their counterparts studying agricultural courses in other institutions.

In the opinion of Mr. Muslim Adewale, of the Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, the FPY programme should be more programme specific so that students in Animal Science will receive training on livestock production while Crop Science students concentrate strictly on crop production.