The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in Bayelsa said it would begin the training of 50 persons in rural agriculture on June 17 as part of its employment creation drive.
The State Co-coordinator of the directorate, Mr David Apakasa, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa on Monday that no nation could do without food production.
He, therefore, commended the Federal Government for its Agricultural Transformation Agenda, saying that it was a step in the right direction.
“The agriculture programme is called the rural agriculture development training scheme; it provides employment opportunity for 50 persons at whatever level of education.
“The objective is to motivate unemployed persons to have interest in undertaking agriculture business.
“Nationally, agriculture is being run as business; in NDE, it is called farm enterprise; for Bayelsa, we’ve been meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture to secure land.
“Other states, they have land and they have what we call the Agricultural Skills Training Centre (ASTC).
“Where we don’t have such, we have what we call the alternative training centres. In Bayelsa, we are going to use the school facility to provide the theoretical aspect of the training.
“We are likely to start tentatively Tuesday this week.“
Apakasa said that the training would equip the people with farming skills and also promote agri-business in the state and country at large.
He called on operators in both the private and public sectors to support the initiative to boost food production in the country and ensure food security. NAN
