As usual in this part of the world, when the farmer Governor of Kwara State, Dr. Bukola Saraki disclosed to Nigerians at Shonga during president Olusegun Obasanjo's visit in August last year that a school/farm was in the offing at Malete in Moro Local Government, where some Nigerians Youths would be practically taught the nitty gritty cum expertise of commercial farming venture which would ultimately transform them from poverty stricken to prosperity manifestations, many treated the declaration as one of the conventional policy statements of a public officer but, merely five months after, the dreamed school has not only become a reality but about to start manifesting its transformed process of poverty to prosperity, in the lives of its first 100 students.

Provably on Monday, the Special Assistant to Governor Bukola Saraki on Media and Communication, Mallam Nurudeen Abdulraheem Imam and his counterpart on youth employment and job creation, Barrister Muyideen Jimba led representatives of the various media organizations in the state including correspondents of National dailies, for on the spot assessment of the Malete farm cum institution.

Setting the ball rolling at farm for the facts finding exercise after formal introduction the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the state governor, Mr. Bisi Abidoye requested the farm manager Mr. Collins, Spain to give the visiting journalists background information about the farm, a request the expatriate farmer passionately obliged and did justice to.
According to him, "Malete farm is another wing of the Agricultural revolution, going on in Kwara State where requisite knowledge of commercial farming is being taught and practically demonstrated towards producing potential indigenous commercial farmers in the state soonest."

"The farm has two separate programmes (i) small scale commercial farming and (ii) training for large scale commercial farming being learnt by the first 100 students on the farm presently," he disclosed.

When asked about the course contents of the programmes, Mr. Spain said the course contents was practically tailored towards educating 100 youths to be commercial farmers at different points in time. His words: "We train them in driving and maintaining tractors and other farm equipments as well as handling of cash flow as potential commercial farmers."

Giving the breakdown of the students composition, the farm manager disclosed that 30% of the pioneer youth farmers are primary school certificate holders 50%, school certificate holders while the remaining 20% are either HND or university degree holders" addling that out of the 100 commercial farming trainees, 13 are females.

Disclosing that the farm training programme is not a one man tutor affair, Mr. Spain said instructors would be invited from Agricultural institutions like the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to teach the students basic studies Oil Agriculture whenever the need arises.

Commercial farming is a serious business, apart from the conventional mechanized farming; we shall into cattle production towards developing a cattle industry in Kwara State, fish farming poultry and Diary Agricultural Venture are other area the Malete Farm shall explore," he added. From the farm office. the
farm manager took us to a place that call be described as the main auditorium where comfortable sitting arrangement of about 200 seats were arranged for students to take their Agricultural lectures between 3 - 5 pm everyday after six hours of practical acquisition of knowledge on the farm from 6.30 - 12 noon daily. At the farm auditorium the special assistants bared their minds on the assessment
visit.

The S.A. media who apparently facilitated the media tour, said the facts finding media coverage on the farm that day would go a long way in repositioning the Malete farm.
According to him, "In the past, we used to invite people from outside to cover special projects in the state, but this time around we want insiders within the media circle to practically see things themselves devoid of the usual officialdom and report to tile generality of Nigerians."

"The commercial farming trainees (students) are here for the media people to interact with and get first hand information from, on the Malete farm apart from official information," he stated.

On his own part, the SA on youth empowerment, Barrister Muyideen Jimba Chronicled the assistance of the state government to the Malete farm within the last few months.
According to him, "the commercial farming trainees in Malete are enjoying electricity and water than their friends in the town, enjoying the facility of cable network and expecting more recreational facilities to come their way and most importantly would be employers of Agricultural labour at the end of their training in December".

Speaking on behalf of the student, Mallam Musa Salihu expressed the gratitude of the students to the state government for the wonderful initiatives which had made them potential commercial farmers and invariably future millionaires.

According to him, "at the beginning when most of us wanted to come to this farm, some of our mates in the town tried to discourage us by telling us that farmers are wretched people in Nigeria, but going by the practical knowledge we are acquiring here, we are more than convinced now that commercial fanning is the surest route to prosperity."

In separate interviews, with other participants, it was discovered that admission into Malete farm was done unbiassedly. For example, one of the 13 female students, Miss Margaret Inakoju an indigene of Kogi State resident in llorin, Taiwo Road, said she applied to be admitted into the farm last year like every other prospective young commercial farmers, and she was taken.

When asked what she would do after the completion of the practical training, the female farmer said she would surely make the best of the training being acquired, by specializing on poultry, fishing and cassava crop farming. From the auditorium, the farm manager took us ,to some of the farm lands recently cleared where he disclosed that the Malete farm had a total of 1,000 hectares of land out which about 500 hectares would be completely cleared in about two weeks time in readiness for planting Season. . Also speaking at the farm sites, Barrister Muyideen Jimba said the Kwara State Government was planning to develop an irrigation scheme for the Malete farm from Malete Dam.

According to him, apart from providing irrigation services to the farm, the
Malete Dam would also provide water for about 28 villages in the area that have
been suffering from acute water shortage for the past 20 years".

On the 100 trainee students, Barrister Jimba said 20 per cent of them were admitted from the Malete area because of the land local farmers in the area donated to government for the project. In his final remarks, the Malete farm manager, Mr. Collins Spain said in Zimbabwe, farmers are highfliers in the society but in Nigeria no one wants to be a farmer. "It is this mindset we want to change, we want farming to be a lucrative business in Nigeria and we want everybody to aspire to be a farmer," he said.

On a parting note, the General Manager of The Herald, Alhaji Abdulraheem Adisa asked the elated farm manager whether there was room for retired civil servants to come for similar acquisition of knowledge, a question Barrister Muyideen Jimba Jokingly responded to by saying the Malete farm was hoping to start executive farming training very soon.