Special agricultural entrepreneurs being raised by Delta State Government are working hard to fill food shortage gaps envisaged to come as a result of the lockdown occasioned by Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the country.
This is as the state government is not relenting in its commitment to empowering them with inputs and support packages to enable them to achieve this dream which is in line with the vision of Governor Okowa’s administration.
Experts in agriculture had foreseen the lockdown creating huge gaps in food production and supply in Nigeria and globally.
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But Sam Ndikanwu, Coordinator, Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurship Programme (YAGEP) of Delta State Job Creation Programme, said that though the lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic had affected the planting season which could lead to food shortage after the harvest season, the gap would be filled by the agricultural activities of the special entrepreneurs otherwise known as YAGEPreneurs .
He stated that the state’s YAGEP initiative which has consistently trained and established thousands of Delta youth in agriculture since year 2015/2016, would not just bridge the gap in the shortfall in the food supply in the state but even beyond.
Ndikanwu spoke while addressing newsmen at the Delta State Agricultural Rural Development Agency in Ibusa (DARDA), the venue where beneficiaries in Crop Production within Delta North Senatorial District received their farm inputs and support package, to boost food production in the state.
The beneficiaries who are of the 2019/2020 cycle included those in piggery, poultry, fish production, and crop production.
BusinessDay gathered that while poultry (broilers) has 58 YAGEPreneurs in the cycle, 32 YAGEPreneurs are farmers of layer birds. Altogether, while the former is estimated to produce 113 metric tonnes of live birds, the latter will produce 4.1 million eggs.
It was learnt that the state projected that with 71 YAGEPreneurs in fish production, 74 metric tonnes of table fish would be produced within a period of four to six months, even as the 24 YAGEPreneurs in piggery would produce 307 metric tonnes of pork.
In the same vein, the 74 YAGEPreneurs in crop production was estimated to produce 588 metric tonnes of cassava in the cassava category while those in the maize category would produce 296 metric tonnes of grains.
Ndikanwu disclosed that with the 259 youth farmers in the current cycle of the programme, the state government was poised to give greater attention to agriculture to ensure food security, job, and wealth creation towards economic stability especially with the global fall in the price of oil due to COVID-19 pandemic.
He said it was estimated that at the end of the production cycle of each farm enterprise, there would be abundant food supply in the state, enough to feed the state and to sell to other parts of the country.
Boyi Charles, a beneficiary from Warri West, commended Governor Ifeanyi Okowa for encouraging and helping the youth to go into agriculture which he said is a money-spinner, and if well invested in could make Delta State and Nigeria economically stable.
