The Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise-Niger Delta ,LIFE-ND, Project has commenced the training and empowerment of 1,020 new beneficiaries in Bayelsa State under its Additional Financing Phase, with a focus on food production, youth employment and wealth creation.
The beneficiaries, comprising the second batch of incubatees and incubators, were formally received at four different locations across the state including the Yenagoa Local Government Council Hall.
The programme which has previously trained over 5000 persons in the state, targets young people and women interested in agricultural enterprises, particularly poultry, plantain, aquaculture and cassava production, among other value-chain activities.
Speaking at the event, the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Prof. Beke Sese, said the beneficiaries had been given an opportunity to improve their livelihoods while contributing to the state’s food security efforts.
Sese said the over 1,000 beneficiaries represented a significant addition to the state’s agricultural workforce, urging them to approach the programme with commitment and make productive use of the support provided.
He said: “We are talking about over one thousand forces that will contribute to food security in Bayelsa State. We all know that the LIFE ND Project focus is on youths, men and women that are interested in poultry, plantain, aquaculture and cassava. Each of these items have various branches that can make you a potential millionaire.
“The participants should consider themselves lucky and I have urged them to grab this opportunity with all the seriousness it deserves because it is an opportunity that can turn their lives around. LIFE ND is a project that is gulping a lot of money, IFAD, NDDC, FG even the Bayelsa State government is investing a whole lot of money in this project.
“Apart from training these incubatees, paying their daily upkeep, they also procure essential inputs and be given to them free of charge and it is their responsibility to use this after the training they all expect to go through and become not just self employed but in no distant time, be employers of labour and be producing food in Bayelsa State.
“Certainly if one thousand Bayelsa indigene that have been so selected take this programme serious enough and do what they are expected to do, there will be an impact in food and employment.
“Our advice is to ensure that they utilize the inputs and the training that they go through. The programme is a giant step in our collective journey towards food security in Bayelsa State.”
The LIFE-ND National Project Coordinator, Dr Abiodun Sanni, represented by the Administration and Logistics Coordinator, Mrs Ngozi Ohaechesi, said the project was introducing 1,020 new incubatees under the Additional Financing Phase, noting that the initiative was designed to increase incomes, strengthen food security and create opportunities for people to become self-reliant through agriculture.
He described agriculture as a viable economic sector capable of generating wealth when approached as a business, urging the beneficiaries, particularly young people aged 18 to 35, to take advantage of the opportunity.
“LIFE-ND Project objective was to make agriculture attractive to young people and enable them to earn sustainable incomes from agricultural enterprises. Please don’t sell your inputs. Make good use of this opportunity because you might not have this opportunity again,” he said.
Also speaking, the Acting State Project Coordinator of LIFE-ND in Bayelsa, Dr Gunn Holly, said willingness to engage in agriculture was one of the key criteria for participation in the programme.
According to him, the project would cover 100 communities across the eight local government areas of the state during the current phase.
Holly said the project was designed to provide beneficiaries with training, inputs and continuous technical support, adding that regular monitoring and evaluation had helped several participants expand their agricultural enterprises.
In her remark, the Bayelsa State Coordinator of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs Christy Akpan, commended the partnership with LIFE-ND and encouraged the beneficiaries to take the programme seriously, adding that agriculture remained an important avenue for reducing poverty and empowering young people, while also commending the Federal Government’s efforts towards strengthening food security.
She assured the beneficiaries that she would work to ensure that they also benefit from the Federal Government’s free fertilizer distribution programme.
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