FG To Reduce Poverty Through Sustainable Agriculture

The Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to lift Nigerians out of poverty through its sustainable agricultural development programmes.
The Director General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Mallam Abubakar Nuhu-Fikpo, said this at the inauguration of the Directorate’s 2021 Post-SADTS Sustainable Agricultural Development Training Programme in Owerri, Monday.
Nuhu-Fikpo, who was represented by Imo State NDE Coordinator, Ms. Ngozi Ihenacho, said the programme will strengthen the capacity of beneficiaries to know about modern agricultural policies.
He added that trainees would be empowered to create, develop and grow the farming businesses of their choice on a sustainable basis and to link with sources of funding for their respective businesses.
This, he said, was aimed at providing more food, creating jobs, reducing poverty and improving the quality of life for farmers and society in general.
“The 50 participants in this one-week training were chosen from graduates of SADTS and the Department for the Promotion of Rural Employment (REP) of the Directorate who wish to develop their agro-food businesses.
“They will be trained on agricultural intervention policies, animal production, digital marketing of agricultural products as well as processing, packaging and marketing of fish,” he said.
In a speech, Director of the REP Department, Mr Michael Mbata, urged participants to pay attention to conferences in order to derive maximum benefit from them.
Mbata, who was represented by Miss Harris Okolie, an employee of the department, called on young people to embrace agriculture as a means of eradicating poverty in the country.
In addition, the head of the REP department in Imo, Mr Chisara Egwim, said that the NDE was developing the next generation of agribusiness experts and urged participants to take the training seriously.
One of the interns, Mr Bernard Iwuagwu, from the Aboh Mbaise Local Government Zone thanked the NDE for the initiative and pledged to put the skills learned to their best use.