By Gabriel Ewepu – Abuja

As part of youth empowerment with agribusiness by the Federal Government, 100 Cross River youths have received five rabbits each from the National Agricultural Land Development Agency, NALDA.

This was part of activities of NALDA when it officially commenced the rabbit farming value chain in Ogoja, Cross River State by the Executive Secretary, NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne, and explained that the rabbits were for the business that would transform their lives based on their commitment to the venture which is lucrative and money-spinning.

According to Ikonne the 100 benefiting youths had a two-day capacity building on animal husbandry on how to rear rabbits for commercial purposes, and another two days they were trained on financial management before the rabbits were handed over to them which include four females and one male each which were given to them.

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He said: “As we in engage you in this lucrative business, we expect total commitment from you, in order to make money from Rabbit farming. So on behalf of President Mohamadu Buhari, I congratulate you.

“I welcome you into the national young farmers’ scheme programme and I look forward to seeing you becoming a millionaire through this project.”

Meanwhile, the Cross River State Coordinator, NALDA, Solomon Ubut, added that the 100 young people were empowered with the requisite knowledge, capacity building, and exposed to effective ways of doing rabbit farming business for profitability.

Ubut also disclosed that the young farmers were selected from five local government areas of Northern Cross River to serve as a pilot project by NALDA in the State, whose ages ranged between 18 and 35, which made them qualified because the scheme is purely designed for youths who have expressed interest in agribusiness.

“We have 25 female and 75 males engaged in this programme, as you are aware, the Young Farmers Programme Initiatives, YFPI, of Mr President is targeted to empowering over 17, 000 young people across the country.

“This scheme is to create job opportunities for our youths and reduce social vices in the society, and NALDA in collaboration with State Government is to extend this programme to include more youths in the State”, he stated.

Vanguard News Nigeria