The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) says it is currently training 600 youths from the 19 northern states and the FCT, on dry season farming to check youth restiveness and rural-urban migration.
Director General of the NDE, Dr Nasir Ladan Argungu, stated this in Kashere, Gombe State, during an orientation programme for trainees from the state under the NDE’s Sustainable Agricultural Development Training Scheme.
Represented by the state NDE coordinator, Malam Ibrahim Faisal Audu, he said the directorate conceived the scheme in order to train school leavers and other youths to acquire agricultural techniques and dry season farming.
He said the beneficiaries, drawn from the 11 LGAs of the state, would be trained on dry season farming techniques and poultry production.
“The scheme is targeted at empowering unemployed youth with passion in agriculture with skills that will turn them to commercial farmers to create more jobs and provide adequate and dependable farm income,” Argungu said.
He added that during the four months’ training, the beneficiaries would undergo field training in crops and livestock production, after which they would be linked with micro-finance banks and the Bank of Industries (BOI) to obtain loans.
Argungu said the farmers would pay the loans at the end of the harvest after sale of their farm produce. He however, decried default by most beneficiaries in repayment even after selling their farm produce.
