Beneficiaries of the Federal Government Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises, Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) project at the weekend took advantage of the Edo Alaghodaro food fair to sell their products at subsidize rates.
BusinessDay reports that the beneficiaries of the federal government programme lauded the organizers of the Alaghodaro food fair for providing them the already made market to sell their products.
The food items sold by the LIFE-ND farmers include Garri, rice, fresh catfish, poultry birds, processed catfish, cassava and cassava flour.
The farmers are mainly youths, women and physically challenged persons.
Speaking to newsmen, Grace Nwaozuzu, a physically challenged woman and one of the farmers noted that the food fair was a great platform to show how much government agricultural policies have impacted on the lives of the people.
Nwaozuzu, a poultry farmer, who said they were grateful for the opportunity to have a ready market for their produce, added that the
food items where sold at subsidized rates in line with the state government directives.
According to her, I have sold all the poultry birds I brought here at subsidized rate and am happy that I made money.
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Also speaking, Sunny Odeh, a fish farmer who also thanked members of the Alaghodaro board for the initiative, said having a ready market alone was an empowerment.
Odeh, however, called on the organisers of the event to hold the food fair regularly.
In his remarks, John Omoruyi, the state project coordinator of LIFE-ND project, said the project was being operated in the nine Niger Delta states.
Omoruyi said the project was promoting four commodities of poultry, rice, cassava and fish in Edo.
He explained that the federal government and the IFAD through LIFE-ND have invested heavily in agriculture, saying that, ready market like the Edo food fair would encourage more people to go into farming.
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“The farmers came from different local government areas of the state and brought food items that have been cultivated after series of training acquired from LIFE-ND project.
“The food fair provides a ready market where the farmers sell directly to the consumers without middlemen. All the four commodities of LIFE-ND are on display for sale here today.
“The food fair is a good initiative by the Alaghodaro team to promote food security in every home in the state”, he said.
He said LIFE-ND project is targeted at youths, women, physically challenged people and female headed households of between 18 and 35 years.
He added that the area of scope of the project is in 10 local governments and 10 communities in each local government area bringing the number to 100 communities across Edo state.
He said the project have so far graduated about 2250 incubates, and who have also been given seed capital to set up their farms.
The state coordinator noted that during the training, the farmers were given monthly stipends for the period they were trained as well as seed capital during graduation.
“The model of the project is the apprenticeship model where we have the incubator and incubates who are to be trained by the incubators”, he added.
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