The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in Enugu State, on Thursday, began training of 100 unemployed youths on animal husbandry and fishing.
Mrs Chika Onah, the State Coordinator of the directorate, said during the flag-off of the Sustainable Agricultural Development Training Scheme (SADTS) that the training was part of efforts to alleviate poverty among people in the state.
Onah said that the training would enable the beneficiaries to become self-reliant and contribute their quota to national development.
She said that the directorate would continue to train unemployed Nigerians with relevant skills to make them self-independent.
The coordinator noted that the SADTS programme, which was organised by the Rural Employment Promotion (REP) department, was a programme aimed at imparting skills to individuals interested in agriculture.
She said that participants would be, within three months, trained in all agricultural skills.
The training will include animal husbandry, fishery, poultry, crop farming and crop processing.
“This is the first set of youths we are training for this year because of the coronavirus disease.
“It is a three-month agricultural training programme, two weeks for tutorial while two months and two weeks will be for practical,’’ she said.
According to the coordinator, those who excel in the training programme would be given start-ups packs.
A resource person for the training, Mr Joe Okoye, said that participants would be trained on how to plant and grow special tomato seedlings.
Okoye, who is also the Enugu State Coordinator of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council, said that the special tomato breed would make the state produce enough tomatoes for its local consumption and also sell to other states.
He commended the directorate for organising the training, which according to him, would raise farmers that would compete favourably with their counterparts in other states.
He urged the beneficiaries to take the training seriously.
Two beneficiaries of the agricultural training, Mrs Eucharia Ude and Mr Chima Ekema, in interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), thanked the NDE for the opportunity.
They pledged that they would not only take the training seriously but would also endeavour to train others as a way of lifting their fellow youths out of poverty. (NAN)
