The livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises, Niger-Delta LIFE-ND project in Abia State has commenced the training of 3,000 agro beneficiaries in a fresh agro training program scheduled to run three years.
The first batch of the training of beneficiaries kicked off with the working section and orientation training of 630 beneficiaries of the first batch which commenced on Tuesday in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
CANDID REPORTERS learnt that the agro project is an additional financing of the agro training programme by IFAD which paved the way for the accommodation of fresh 3,000 beneficiaries scheduled for different batches of the training in the state.
The agro training for each batch is scheduled to run for three months, where the beneficiaries will be grouped to be trained on fishery, cassava, rice and poultry enterprises. The agro commodity training still involves production, marketing and processing.
The beneficiaries will also be taught financial management, incubation processes, and how to make money from their activities before they will be empowered.
During the event, the Abia State commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Cliff Agbaeze applauded LIFE-ND team for their hard work and team work and urged all beneficiaries to focus on the training while stating that the Abia state government is building an army of well trained youths on modern agricultural practices through the LIFE-ND Project and other agro interventions in the state.
While interacting with newsmen on the LIFE-ND agro training programme, the commissioner said the training practice is rooted in the ‘‘traditional Igbo trade culture which involves training some persons and then grow to train others’’. He also added that the beneficiaries will be trained on new ways of practicing agriculture.
Dr. Agbaeze said the beneficiaries ‘‘will not only produce food for the table, but also bring money to their pockets and lift them out of poverty as well as solve problems in the society’’.
Dr. Agbaeze applauded the administrative style of Governor Alex Otti who he said believes in doing things differently to yield positive results.
In his words: ‘‘we want to do it differently, if we cannot do it very well as His Excellently always say; ‘‘we don’t want to do it at all’’. We want to do agriculture in a manner that will be attractive to the youth so that they won’t go into crime’’.
He added that Abia state government has been leaving up to expectation in the payment of counterpart fund to ensure that the International Fund For Agricultural Development (IFAD) project is sustained.
According to the Abia state LIFE-ND Project Coordinator, Dr. Uchenna Rowland Onyeizu, while responding to newsmen, said the beneficiaries were selected from forty seven (47) communities in six (6) local government area of Abia state, namely; Ohafia, Bende, Obingwa, Aba South, Isialangwa South and Umuahia South.
Dr. Onyeizu explained that the first stage of the training programme is to enlighten the incubators( trainers) and incubatees (trainees) on the mission and vision of the project as well as helping them to be more ethical in the practice of agriculture.
Also present during the training is Mrs. Ngozi Ohaechesi, the National Administrative Officer who represented Engr. Dr. Abiodun Sanni, the National Project Coordinator of LIFE-ND. She added that the beneficiaries went through a selection process which was free from political interference as advertisement was done which is a core process of the project.
Mrs. Ngozi emphasised that at the end of the training, the beneficiaries will be empowered with a soft loan to start up their agro business which should be repaid within three years to pave way for others to benefit from the project.
Mrs. Ngozi said because the pioneers of the project in Nigeria exceeded the expectations of the International Fund For Agricultural Development (IFAD), it paved way to ask for more.
After the training, the beneficiaries signed a memorandum of Understanding which signalled full compliance of the project training procedure.
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