Kwara State’s niche area is agriculture. It is therefore natural that agriculture provides the ready call in seeking employment windows for youths in the State.

The Kwara State Commercial Agriculture Initiative in Shonga, otherwise known as the ‘Zimbabwean Farmers Project’ is the flagship agriculture project of the State. Apart from the obvious economic and social benefits that have been well documented elsewhere, this initiative has however become a major employer of labour in the State, especially within the community where it is located. The project currently employs 2600 men and women. Each of these earns monthly salaries ranging between N7,500 and N20,000. This level of income within the rural community of Shonga has significantly improved the livelihood of the workers and their families generally.

The Back-To-Farm programme is the pilot agriculture programme started in June 2003, only one month after the inauguration of the Dr. Bukola Saraki administration. It was meant to be a mobilisation programme that provides credit facilities to farmers in form of seedlings, chemicals and land cultivation. From the initial 100 farmers that participated in the inaugural phase in 2003, the number of participating farmers has grown to 1,361, bringing about 1600 hectares of land under cultivation across the 16 Local Governments of the State with rice, cassava and maize being the dominant crops.  

Bee-keeping is another agricultural activity that has been quite popular with a large number of our youths. The increased demand for natural honey both nationally and internationally provides a major inspiration for these youths seeking opportunities. Through the Youth Employment Office, 400 young men and women enrolled for training in bee-keeping. Each of them was set up with 10 bee-hive boxes each. The results began to emerge in May this year when the first set of natural honey produced by the trainee bee-keepers was presented to the public. The honey is currently widely sold in the open market and through the State ministry of commerce.

Fish farming has also provided another vista of opportunities for our youths. 70 youths have been trained on the skills for managing small-scale fish ponds with a start-off capital of about N60, 000. With opportunities for 2 harvests per year, these youths could easily double their investment in a year with opportunities for expansion.

Kwara State ultra-modern cashew processing factory located in Ogbondoroko in Asa Local Government is another major avenue for employment generation. The processing unit has an annual processing capacity of 300metric tonnes of raw cashew and employs up to 500 workers at take off and over a 1000 at full capacity.

Agriculture and Agriculture processing alone has created employment for 4,931 Kwarans in 3 years.