The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr Christian Oboh, has reaffirmed that the commission would continue to play critical roles in the drive for mechanised agriculture in the region.

Mr Oboh stated this recently at the official reception of 11 engineers who returned from India after successfully undergoing training on tractors repairs and maintenance.

The NDDC boss who commended the engineers for being good ambassadors of Rivers State and the NDDC then directed the organisation’s, Directorate of Agriculture to draw up a training programme that would enable the engineers impart to others the experience gained on the retraining scheme.

He also directed other departments to initiate training programmes for sustainable development.

Agriculture, he noted, was a priority sector of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and assured that NDDC would give priority attention to agriculture for economic development of the Niger Delta.

Recounting their experience, one of the engineers, Edikan Eshiet said they had a very challenging period while in India, adding that with the experience gained, they were better equipped to handle the tractors.

Speaking, NDDC’s head of Agriculture Directorate, Akwagaga Enyia explained that mechanised agriculture was a guarantee to increase food production and employment generation for the youths.

Disclosing that the commission had trained 11,000 youths with about N1 billion used in empowering them, she said by next year, they would go seriously into the field with the Indian trained engineers training them under the train-the-trainer scheme.

Chris Oluoh