The Delta State Government has expressed its willingness to ensure effective collaboration with the IFAD/LIFE-ND Project to boost the development of agriculture in the state.
The State’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Hon Perekebena Omoun, who stated this on Wednesday, said that the collaboration was also necessary in view of the strategic role the LIFE-ND Project was playing in encouraging Agriculture at the grassroots in the State.
Omoun said, “I’m just from the Budget Presentation by His Excellency the Governor of Delta State, Rt. Hon Sheriff Oborevwori and, I can assure you that, once the counterpart fund for the LIFE-ND Project is ready, the project would be expanded beyond where it is now.
“I have created a budget for the LIFE-ND Project in the 2024 Appropriation Bill and I can assure you that, His Excellency is favourably disposed to the operations of the project”.
The Commissioner further noted that he was aware that this is the fourth training tranche of the project in the State, adding that agriculture was a genuine source of job and wealth creation, therefore, the State Government was totally committed to what it will take to make it succeed, for the overall good of the people.
Omoun thanked the management of the LIFE-ND Project for doing a good job in the State, and urged the beneficiaries of the Agric items to make good use of them.
“You are Ambassadors of LIFE-ND Project, therefore, go and prove that you’re good farmers. Put the skills you have acquired into practice, and make a success of your chosen enterprise,” he added.
Highpoint of the event was the inspection of the Agricultural items by the Commissioner, supported by ministry officials, management of the LIFE-ND Project and others.
Meanwhile, the incubatees expressed gratitude and satisfaction with the training from the LIFE-ND Project, adding that the training has been life-changing.
The Agricultural items distributed include Tricycles, defecting machines, power generators, welding accessories, juvenile and fish feeds, day-old chicks, poultry drinkers and feeders.
Others are Live chick, outdoor grills, processing tables, plastic fish tanks, gallons and hatching implements, smoking kilns, cash and processing implements.
Also distributed were: Wooden boats, outdoor engines, fishing nets, grinding machines, pressers, hydraulic jacks, Android tablet devices with customized LIFE-ND Project mobile applications, cassava stems, herbicides, pesticides and many others.
The Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises Project for the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) is a project of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) designed in collaboration with International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The project is in response to the limited readily available options for the “disadvantaged” (youth and women) in the rural and suburban communities to improve their means of livelihood and help them to live decent lives.
LIFE-ND promotes community-based on-farm and off-farm business activities along key agricultural value chain as a mechanism for job and wealth creation amongst unemployed and underemployed youths and women-headed households.
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