Niger Delta youths on Israeli agricultural training

The trainees are in an Israeli Kibuk, which now doubles as Skills Acquisition Centre for the youth in North Israel, and has all the trappings and experts to train any willing learner to become a successful specialist in any branch of agriculture.The group of 100, the first batch to be trained there, is billed to […]

The trainees are in an Israeli Kibuk, which now doubles as Skills Acquisition Centre for the youth in North Israel, and has all the trappings and experts to train any willing learner to become a successful specialist in any branch of agriculture.
The group of 100, the first batch to be trained there, is billed to spend 60 days in Israel.  Many of them have opted to study Aquaculture and Fisheries, entirely apt for residents of the Niger Delta creeks, where fishing has been a traditional way of life for centuries.
Other trainees selected orchard and plantation agriculture, again, a specialism that suits most of the nine states that fall within the Niger Delta categorization. Those in Ondo or Cross Rivers, indeed, most of the nine states where there is more land than marshes and creeks, will find this practicable, and needless to say, potentially lucrative.
Cocoa, oil palm, coconut, kola nuts, rubber, and several other tree crops can thrive and make profitable yields there. Those who chose to go into developing plantations for timber will as well find it equally rewarding.  Bee-keeping is another sub-sector that proved to be popular among the trainees.
A good number of them want to engage in poultry farming, with mixed birds as their target area of specialization: they want to be chicken and turkey farmers at once as both birds seem to have an inexhaustible market driven by demand in a country with a population of over 160 million people.
Several of them saw dairy farming as an area with great potential financial reward and have chosen to explore it as a means of their livelihood. They said they want to use it as a platform to help Nigeria cut its imported food bill.  
They patriotically rejected the tempting unwholesome option of soiling their hands by engaging in oil theft, illegal bunkering, or the waning propensity for militancy. Agriculture is a more honourable, viable and sustainable option.
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is steadily tackling these challenges through the Presidential Task Force on Oil Theft, the rehabilitative Amnesty Programme and the mitigating activities of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs. Of course, the Niger Delta Development Commission is also making strides. It is appropriate that the trainees have wholeheartedly agreed with Mr. President by preferring to pursue agriculture as a way of making money.
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Darius Dickson Ishaku, did not mince words in reminding the youths of the determination of the Federal Government under the watch of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to make a huge difference in their individual lives by adequately equipping them with beneficial skills.
The minister said that the decision to bring them to Israel for the training exercise in various aspects of agriculture was simply because their hosts and trainers have excelled in the practice of modern agriculture and have developed the value chains of all the crops they grow and derive maximum benefit from each.
The minister assured the youths that upon returning home from their training, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs will link them up with their various state governments with a view to allocating farmlands to them so that they can put their new skills into beneficial use.
One other thing he reminded them of was the expectation that each of them will train at least 20 youths from their various communities in their areas of specialization. This will in turn bring forth 2, 000 new young farmers equipped with the requisite skills to be highly productive and make money from agriculture.

Salisu Na’inna Dambatta is the Director of Information in the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.