By Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse
The Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Dutse (FUD) in Jigawa Professor Abdulkarim Sabo Muhammad has disclosed that the university is set to establish community/farmers Radio station.
The VC indicated that the station will provide awareness programs on public health, disease control and prevention as well as agricultural extension services to it’s host communities.
The director public affairs of the university, Malam Abdullahi Yahaya Bello, in a statement issued in Dutse, quoted the Vice chancellor to have stated that the university will soon establish community/farmers Radio station to provide extension services education to farmers in the host community as well as enlighten them on other related issues.
This he said is in order to strengthen the relationship that exist between the university and the host community.
According to the statement, Federal University Dutse will establish a community/farmers radio under the Centre for Agricultural Research and Extension Services(CARES) of the institution as part of the university’s determination to improve agricultural extension services.
According to the statement ‘the university has bought the necessary equipments for the establishment of the radio station”.
The statement further indicated that “It is in touch with the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria(BON) where the paper works has began and very soon the radio station will take off”.
It added that universities are established for teaching, research and community service delivery adding that the radio station will help the university to disseminate research findings to the community.
The statement quoted
Prof. Abdulkarim to have explained further saying apart from providing extension education to the selected villages that are already partnering with the Centre for Agricultural Research and Extension Services (CARES), the radio station will also pass information on public health issues like disease prevention and control from the Public Health Unit of the University Health Centre (UHC) to the 17 neighbouring villages that are benefiting from the free primary healthcare services of the university”, Bello emphasis
The Director of the CARES Dr. Bashir Gumel who gave further clarification on the activities of the Centre said the coming of the radio station will help them reach out to the villages under the National Adopted Village for Smart Agriculture (NAVSA) initative which is a major partnership between the Centre and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
He said the radio station will also help them to diseminate information on the ongoing Project between the centre and NITDA titled Precision Agriculture Project and Development Services Provision Centre HIVES program.
The program according to him is aimed at promoting entrepreneur activities in the state and the country at large adding that the initiative will provide users access to shared facilities that would not only drive their personal entrepreneurship aspirations but also engage in open innovation through the cross-fertilization of ideas.
Dr.Gumel said the radio station will impact greatly on the youth Agri-preneurship Program of the Centre which is aimed at training the youth on the the production, processing, value addition and marketing of arable crops within and outside the state
