The Ogun State chapter of National Directorate of Employment(NDE),has trained 100 youths on sustainable agricultural development in the state.
The Director General of the agency, Mallam Nuhu Fikpo, disclosed this in his address at the flag-off ceremony of the “2022 Sustainable Agricultural Development Training Scheme (SADTS)” and Orientation of the 2021 40% REP loans scheme held in Ogun State.
He was represented at the occasion by the Ogun State Coordinator, Mr. Alao Babatunde Ismail .
He noted that the scheme will promote environmental, stewardship and enhance quality of life for farmers’ families as well as the communities.
He explained that the programme was in line with the Federal Government policy on agriculture for employment generation and wealth creation.
He disclosed that participants at the training scheme were drawn from all sectors of the communities, Local Government Areas and all the Senatorial Districts.
He noted that total of one hundred (100) participants had been recruited in all the 20 Local Government Areas of Ogun State.
He said, “The training curriculum had been structured to include major areas of modern Agricultural Production (crop farming and livestock production), marketing and Agripreneurial training, the duration of the training program is three months, including two weeks exclusively for theoretical/classroom training in life skills lectures, business plan writing, crop production and livestock.
According to him,the remaining period will be for practical skills acquisition on the adaptive farm. Moreover, the participants would be paid stipend monthly.
He added:”Towards the end of the training exercise, linkages will be established with financial institutions and other sources of funds for resettlement of graduates of the scheme. The 38 beneficiaries of the different loan schemes were selected based on their performance in their various training programmes.”
“The beneficiaries of the sustainable agricultural development empowerment scheme, graduate agricultural empowerment scheme, agricultural enhancement scheme and community based agricultural empowerment scheme have been profiled for a loan package of N100, 000 each. The loan repayment is very flexible with tenure of three years and a moratorium of six months”
