The University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) plans to establish a 1,000-hectare oil palm plantation to provide training and laboratory facilities for students in the Faculties of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, who made this known while addressing the 239th meeting of the Senate of the university, put the cost of the proposed plantation at N1.2 billion.

He said the Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, and the Minister of Agriculture, Dr A. Adeshina, would kick off the project on May 15.

The plantation will also service the Departments of Forestry, Plant Biology and other related disciplines, and provide a source of internally generated revenue for the university.

A renowned Professor of Agriculture, Job Olutimehin Atteh, who heads the committee that would midwife the project, said the plantation would start on a 10-hectares land initially, adding that 2,000 oil palm seedlings have been purchased from the National Institute for Oil-Palm Research (NIFOR), Benin City, Edo State.

The oil palm plantation will increase the university’s store of economic plants.