The Niger Delta Development Commission in partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, has commenced a five-day training aimed at empowering younger staff with the skills and knowledge to sustain agricultural innovations into the future.

The beneficiaries of the capacity building which is holding at the Delta Songhai Farm, Amukpe, Sapele, Delta State, were drawn from Akwa Ibom, Imo and Rivers States of the Niger Delta

At the opening on Wednesday, the National Coordinator, Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises in the Niger Delta, Dr Abiodun Sanni, said the training was designed to equip the NDDC personnel beneficiaries with the requisite skills and competencies for their supervisory role to drive sustainable development and ultimately improve the quality of life for the people of the Niger Delta through LIFE-ND.

Sanni, who spoke via Life- ND’s Administrative/Logistics Officer, Mrs. Ngozi Ohaechesi, expressed optimism that at the end of the first phase of the programme, 12, 750 would have benefited from the training.

He said, “NDDC is a co-funder of the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises in the Niger Delta Project that started six years ago with International Fund for Agricultural Development assisted states of Abia, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, Delta, Edo and Ondo states.

”Institutional strengthening of stakeholders training for the remaining NDDC states became operational last year, and so far, this is the first agricultural capacity building we are doing for the benefiting states with 60 participants drawn from Akwa Ibom, Imo and Rivers that did not benefit from the International Fund for Agricultural Development capacity building.”

The theme of the training: Innovative Agricultural Systems, Agribusiness and Climate Smart Aquaculture for NDDC supervisory agricultural officials in various departments and units with a view to use incubation model to drive and promote agribusiness enterprise development amongst the women and youths in the rural areas of the Niger-Delta region with rice, cassava, plantain, oil palm, cocoa, poultry and fishery as priority commodities.

In her address on behalf of the Director of Agriculture and Fisheries, Dr. Winifred Madume, encouraged participants to take full advantage of the training, which centers on the incubator/incubatee model—a system that has already yielded positive results in community-based agricultural development across the Niger Delta.

She said, “We are not just here to learn about food production, but to prepare for the future leadership and continuity of the NDDC/IFAD Programme. Directors may phase off with time, but younger staff must be ready to take the baton and run with it.

“NDDC/IFAD has been in collaboration in trying to bring about food sustainability and Security from the grassroots based on the incubator /incubatee model.

“This model has been very successful and has also become a model the Ndde itself is also applying in their various programmes

“We are fere to learny more about this model and others that will bring about the overall success of the NDDO IFAD Programme.

“The very essence of this training hinges from the fact that, Directors here present will phase off with time and it behoves on the younger staff to carry on with this programme, therefore the need to train the younger staff to fill in for the future. I therefore urge all the participants to make use of this training.”

Representative of Niger Delta Development Commission, and Director Two, Agriculture and Fisheries, Mr Frank Oputu-Tonye expressed the commitment of the commission to the sustenance of the training project through meeting its counterpart funding.

He gave an assurance that the training on use of modern technology in agriculture would impact positively on the benefiting Niger Delta communities.

“We are in partnership with IFAD to improve the livelihood of people in the Niger Delta Region, and are piloting the project as agreed by both parties” Oputu-Tonye said.


https://punchng.com/nddc-trains-60-staff-to-boost-grassroots-food-security/