Gov. Monday Okpebholo of Edo state has signed a bill amending the name and governing structure of the state school of Agriculture, which is currently being operated in three campuses.
Okpebholo signed the bill into law when he received the Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Mr Blessing Agbebaku on a courtesy visit to Government House, Benin City.
According to the bill recently passed by the House of Assembly, the school will now be known as the Edo State College of Agriculture, Science and Technology.
The newly rebranded College of Agriculture, Science and Technology will operate across 3 Campuses with Iguoriakhi the main campus focusing on agric technology, Uromi Campus for Forestry and Agenebode campus for aquaculture.
Speaking before the governor assented the bill, Agbebaku noted that the amendment will ensure global best practices and proper training of students.
He assured that the amendments in the bill will ensure students from the institution will have practical and innovative agriculture skill to ensure food sufficiency.
According to him, we are here to present to you the College of Agriculture bill that the house has just passed.
“Agriculture has gone scientific, we decided to reamend the bill to so that we can push agric into the system scientifically.
“The bill was first name, College of Agriculture and National Resources, now it has been amended by your instruction to be called College of Agriculture, Science and Technology, because agric has gone scientific,” he said.
In his remarks, Okpebholo noted that the signing of the bill into law was a new dawn for the school and the state at large.
“Today, is a new dawn for Edo State College of Agriculture, that the amended law will bring about a lot of improvement in the school and the state would benefit from this development.
“This new changes will improved the students capacity in the school, this amended bill is coming at the right time when every state of the federation is charged with the responsibility of meeting it’s food consumption rate.
“We want to be able to produce at least 95 per cent of what we consumed as a people, we want to use agric to increase our Internally Generated Revenue.
“This present law will help us creates jobs opportunity to our teeming youths, in terms of livestock rearing and agricultural husbandry.
“This sector would educate our youths to focus on the breeding, care, and daily management of livestock to produce meat, milk, fiber, and eggs.