Mrs Amaka Okenwa-Uzoechina, Enugu State Fadama III Project Coordinator, has said that the project will mobilise youths into farmer groups for agricultural activities.

Okenwa-Uzoechina said in Enugu during the week that the project had established offices in the 17 local government areas of the state to be used for the mobilisation.

She said interested youths would be encouraged to form cooperative groups to be able to receive financial support for agriculture.

“We have guidelines to follow in the formation of the groups which starts from the communities, where they are mobilised, screened, registered and trained to ensure that they are prepared for agriculture.

“We have so many youth groups scattered everywhere in the state. Uwani Youth Fish Farmers have started harvesting their fish and are selling at Artisan Market,’’ she said.

Okenwa-Uzoechina said youths from secondary schools, university under-graduates and the unemployed were encouraged to join Fadama groups.

She said all cooperative groups were required to open a Fadama User Equity Fund Account for all dealings with the project office.

“In this account, they will save 15 per cent of proceeds from the sale of their farm products monthly, quarterly or twice annually,” she said.

She explained that the idea was to create a revolving fund for the expansion and sustainability of agriculture in the state.

The official said some of the challenges of the project had been the inability of farmers to work together as a group, illiteracy and the non-payment of the counterpart fund by the benefitting groups.