A five-day training has been organized in Delta State by the Federal Government in collaboration with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development Assisted Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises in the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) to boost agricultural productivity and ensure food sufficiency using scientific innovations.
Participants of the capacity building programme holding at the Delta Songhai Farm, Amukpe, Sapele were drawn from Akwa Ibom, Imo and Rivers states of the Niger Delta region.
According to the organisers of the training which has as its theme: “Innovative Agricultural Systems, Agribusiness and Climate Smart Aquaculture”, for NDDC supervisory agricultural officials in various departments and units, the central trust of the training project was to use incubation model to drive and promote agribusiness enterprise development amongst the women and youths in the rural areas of the region with rice, cassava, plantain, oil palm, cocoa, poultry and fishery as priority commodities.
At the opening ceremony, the National Coordinator, Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises in the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND), Dr. Abiodun Sanni said the training was designed to equip the NDDC personnel beneficiaries with the requisite skills and competencies for their supervisory role to drive sustainable development and ultimately improve the quality of life for the people of the Niger Delta through LIFE-ND.
”NDDC is a co-funder of the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises in the Niger Delta Project that started 6 years ago with International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) assisted states of Abia, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, Delta, Edo and Ondo states”
”Institutional strengthening of stakeholders training for the remaining NDDC states became operational last year, and so far, this is the first agricultural capacity building we are doing for the benefiting states with 60 participants drawn from Akwa Ibom, Imo and Rivers that did not benefit from the International Fund for Agricultural Development capacity building.”
”Hopefully, at the end of the first phase of the agricultural incubation training for women and youths in Akwa Ibom, Imo and Rivers States, we will have 12,750 beneficiaries of our LIFE-ND project.
”Already, there are over a thousand women and youths that are currently undergoing our incubation model — incubators training the incubatees”, Dr Sanni stated.
Representative of Niger Delta Development Commission, and Director II, Agriculture and Fisheries, Mr Frank Oputu-Tonye expressed the commitment of the commission to the sustenance of the training project through meeting its counterpart funding.
He gave assurance that the training on use of modern technology in agriculture would impact positively on the benefiting Niger Delta communities.
”We are in partnership with IFAD to improve the livelihood of people in the Niger Delta Region, and are piloting the project as agreed by both parties”, Oputu-Tonye pointed out.
Participants gave assurance that they would cascade the knowledge and skills acquired in their various supervisory roles down to communities to boost agricultural productivity.
The Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises Project -Niger Delta directly supports Nigeria’s green alternative roadmap for agriculture and the strategic framework for youth employment and job creation.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is the lead implementing agency of the LIFE-ND project while the Niger Delta Development Commission is an implementing partner.
