By Leonard Okachie
The Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises Project for the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) on Tuesday sensitised farmers in Abia on the effects of climate change, nutrition mainstreaming and basic farming techniques.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the farmers, drawn from various communities in the 10 local governments in the state, were tutored at a working session in Umuahia.
LIFE-ND is a project of the Federal Government in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The project is designed to solve food insecurity in the nine Niger Delta states.
The State Project Coordinator, LIFE-ND, Dr Uchenna Onyeizu said the 500 farmers were enlightened on climate change and its impacts on the environment and the need for tree planting to mitigate its effects.
Onyeizu said the farmers were also taught basic farming techniques, book-keeping, nutrition mainstreaming, hygiene and sanitation, among others.
He said that the beneficiaries would join the 1500 others who would be sent for training at an incubation programme in the state.
“We are adopting an incubation model in our empowerment process, whereby we have different sessions that a potential beneficiary must pass through.
“In this working session, we give them general information about our project, what our project aims to achieve, the period of time they will be in our incubation centres and so on.
“We also teach them about accounting so that when they eventually engage in their businesses they can keep good records,” Onyeizu said.
Mr Chidozie Kanu, LIFE-ND Environment and Climate Change Specialist, said that beneficiaries were told to plant as many trees as they could within their vicinity.
“We create such awareness for us to know that local action of ours has a global effect,” Kanu said.
Also, Mr Godwin Chukwuekezie, the State Agribusiness Promotion Officer for LIFE-ND, said that the beneficiaries would be trained at the various incubation centres on four agro commodities.
Chukwuekezie said that the agro commodities included poultry, oil palm processing, rice and cassava production.
A participant, Smart Nwaegusoro from Ugwunagbo Local Government, expressed gratitude to LIFE-ND, saying that the sensitisation had prepared him for the empowerment programme. (NAN)
