Mr Patrick Ifon, the member representing Eket Federal Constituency and his predecessor, Mrs Owoidighe Ekpoattai, has urged the youth to embrace agro-business as a means of creating wealth for themselves.
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The duo were speaking in Eket during a one-day training programme for the youth and women on agribusiness in Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom on Friday.
The training was organised by Aquatic Resources training centre, Tunari, Taraba, in collaboration with an Abuja based firm, EPPIN forest engineering limited.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training was facilitated by Mr Ifon as part of his empowerment initiative to encourage the youth on self-reliance.
The train the trainers workshop with the theme: “Sustainable Agro-Wastes Management and Re-utilisation Technologies workshop drew participants from the four local government areas: Eket, Onna, Esit Eket, and Ibeno, that constitute the federal constituency.
Ifon stressed the importance of agriculture in nation-building, economy and national security.
He said that food sufficiency was a critical component of national security while the training would help the participants to be self-reliant and also contribute to the federal government’s plans for food sufficiency and diversification.
“Thirty youths and women were carefully selected from Eket Federal Constituency to participate in the event.
“After the training, the beneficiaries will have to train other youths to go into sustainable agriculture,” he said.
He said that the trainees would be trained on snail farming in the state.
Ifon said that at the end of the training session, starter packs worth N200,000 would be given to the beneficiaries of the programme who are ready to start snail farming immediately.
“Starter packs such as Mobile Snail Base feeds, layers and other materials will be given to beneficiaries to take off immediately,” Ifon said.
Also speaking, Mrs Ekpoattai, said the programme was conceived during her tenure in the House of Representatives for the constituency.
Ekpoattai, who was represented by Mr Ubong Samuel, said the training was meant to empower the youth and women in the area in small scale Agro-businesses.
She said the essence of the workshop was to awaken the people on what they could do with agro-wastes management with technology available to start small businesses.
Dr Gloria Obioh, Head, Department of Environmental Biotechnology and Bio -conservation, National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Abuja, was the resource person.
Obioh called on the state government to put machinery in place to get a sustainable bioresources development centre in the state.
According to her, the centre will bring in expertise to give the people the best training on how to harness the biological resources into gold because it is more than crude.
She explained that every agro-business generates residues just like most industrial processes.
She stated that the residues might require one forms of pre-treatment or the other to enable re-utilisation as in the production of silage from cornfields for biogas production.
Obioh said that a biotechnology-driven economy was essential in driving agri-food systems in the country.
She added that there was more wealth in the domestication of non-wood forest products than in crude.
She said that entrepreneurship provided the basis for the transformation of academic research into useful development projects that benefited the society.
“Small business entrepreneurship for women and youth empowerment are pivotal to sustainable national development and are sure ways of improving livelihood and resilience of our teeming population,” Obioh said.
NAN reports that other resource persons were Dr Ukonu Ukonu, a lecturer at the Centre of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Department, University of Ibadan, and Dr Patrick Aderinola, Centre Director, Aquatic Bioresources Training Centre, Taraba state.
Responding on behave of the beneficiaries, Mr Iboro Imose from Eket, described the training as a full package that was full of benefits.
He thanked the facilitators for selecting him among the beneficiaries and promised to use the training to create wealth for himself and also to train others to be self-reliant.