The Delta Job and Wealth Creation Bureau has begun orientation and farm enterprise training for 158 youths in crop production, under its Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurs Programme (YAGEP).
Addressing the beneficiaries on Wednesday in Asaba, the Chief Job and Wealth Creation Officer, Prof. Eric Eboh, said that the programme was aimed at creating jobs and wealth through training.
Eboh said that the training would enable the youths to become agricultural entrepreneurs, self-employed and employers of labour.
He explained that it was organised to make beneficiaries familiar with the principles and methods of YAGEP.
According to him, the emphasis would be on key management issues such as critical success factors in farm enterprise management.
The training, he added, would also focus on farm records and accounts, managing risks and uncertainties in agricultural production and agricultural insurance.
He identified the two categories of the YAGEP programme to include Green YAGEP and Brown YAGEP.
Eboh said Green YAGEP was for youths who are new in agricultural enterprises and required training in a chosen agricultural skill.
The programme will also provide facilities, materials and financial support to enable them to start-up and run agricultural enterprises.
The Brown YAGEP is for youths who already have agricultural skills and own agricultural enterprises but need refresher training in practical and managerial skills.
According to him, YAGEP had run five successful cycles, producing 1,174 YAGEP beneficiaries.
Eboh said that the beneficiaries were trained and set up in various agricultural enterprises including poultry, crop production, piggery, fish production and agro-processing among others from 2015 to 2020.
YAGEP, he said, is in its sixth cycle with 400 beneficiaries who would be enrolled in fish production, poultry, piggery and crop production.
“The 2020-2021 cycle is the sixth consecutive run of the programme, which will cover 400 youth agricultural entrepreneurs in the Brown YAGEP category.
“The enterprises covered programme cycles in poultry, piggery, fish production and cultivation of arable crops such as cassava, yam, maize, rice, tomato, okra, watermelon, pumpkin and plantain,” he said.
On his part, the Executive Assistant to Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa on Youth Monitoring and Mentoring, Mr Edward Mekwunye advised the beneficiaries to make good use of the opportunity to become great agricultural entrepreneurs.
He said that the state government had invested a lot in the programme and urged them to work hard for the success of the programme.
Meanwhile, some of the beneficiaries commended the state government for the Initiative.
Mr Omenogor Azuka from Ndokwa East Local Government Area and Mr Henry Abiaka from Ethiope East Local Government Area of the state commended the state government for the initiative.
They were optimistic that the support packages attached to the programme would help them to expand their farm enterprises from subsistence level to commercial farming.