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By Festus Ahon, ASABA

NO fewer than 260 incubatees being trained by Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise in the Niger Delta, LIFE-ND, on modern and best agricultural practices in Delta State, Thursday, graduated from the program. 

Set goal of the program which is being supported by the Federal Government, International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC and benefiting Nine South- South states, is to realise a transformed rural economy in which the rural population in the region derives prosperity and equal benefit.

Speaking during the ceremony, Permanent Secretary of the Delta State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr Ben Agama, said the Delta Government was the first to pay its counterpart funds for the project.

While urging the incubatees to incorporate the training and create wealth for themselves and as employers of labour, Agama commended the Federal Government, coordinators of the project and the incubators for the successes so far recorded in training the incubatees on modern and best practices in agriculture.

National Coordinator of LIFE-ND, Mr Abiodun Sanni, in his remarks, said;

“It’s objective is also to provide job opportunities for the teeming youths in the states using sustainable agricultural enterprise development.

“The graduating youths and women of LIFE-ND project in Delta today, have undergone training in best agronomic practices within the value chains of Cassava, Poultry, Fishery and Oil Palm; the graduating incubatees have excelled in all the trades”.

Delta State Project Coordinator of the program, Mr Collins Ashoro, said LIFE-ND project began in 2020 in Delta with the profiling, selection and validation of incubators and incubatees for the project, explaining that the project covers 10 local government areas and 10 communities per Local Government. 

Disclosing that the scheme has successfully implemented the incubation model in nine Local Government Areas and 58 communities in the State, Ashoro said the project is to also enhance income, food security and job creation for rural youths and women through agri-enterprise development on a sustainable basis in the Niger Delta region.

He said: “As we know, LIFE-ND project is being implemented in nine states of the region; Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Ondo Rivers and Imo.

“In Delta, 320 incubatees were selected, trained and attached to incubators for mentorship. And of the 320 incubatees that participated in the first phase, 260 are graduating and certificated today”.

Some of the incubatees who spoke pledged to deploy the training to full use by implementing what they have learned to create wealth and become employers of labour in the state.

They commended the sponsors of the scheme for the opportunity given to them to be part of the programme.

Vanguard News Nigeria