By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa
Youths in Bayelsa state in particular and Niger Delta region in general have been implored to venture into any sector of Agriculture to earn their living instead of spending their time in chasing white collar jobs, as participants have equally been called upon to key into the linkages provided by Kingdom Boza ventures and PIND.
Speaking at a recent one day event organized by Kingdom Obuza Agriculture ventures , with the theme: Food Security , poultry place in a sustainable supply chain, Mr Kingdom Obuza who is an agricpreneur said the reason which led him to into partnership with Centre For Social Awareness and Ethics ( CSAAE) funded by PIND, Peace Initiative in Niger Delta sponsored by Chevron Nigeria Limited to create awareness for poultry farmers to take advantage of the linkage opportunities to interact with big farmers and how market their products.
According to Kingdom Obuza, a Bayelsan based agricpreneur, with specialization in Poultry Farming, there abound multiple advantages in Poultry Farming hence for the past eighteen years he has been into the business and the idea behind the training was for the farmers to come together to understand and minimize the problems they face, especially with funding, access to finance which are major problems facing entrepreneurs to go back to business and to expand their frontiers and how to approach financial institutions and insured their against unforeseeable circumstances.
“The essence of the event to lecture poultry farmers to understand the great problems they face, how to minimize them, access to finance and risks involved, hence financial institutions and insurance companies were invited”
He said most farmers were still brooding on losses they incurred during the 2022 flood and if they were aware of the importance of insurance, these would mitigate against their losses.
“We have been able create opportunities for poultry farmers to networking with big farmers to link them to markets and how to sour e for funds to expand and for sustainability.
He indentified climate change and 2022 flood and outbreak of diseases as major challenges Bayelsa poultry farmers had grappled with.
On his relationship with Bayelsa State government, he applauded the current state government for giving him the opportunity to undertake training in Nassarawa State and the empowerments that accompanied it and offer of grants of #300,000 and one million naira which he used to expand his business.
“The current government, through the ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, has really been supportive to agricpreneurs”
Also speaking, Omotola Olalade of the Centre for Social Awareness and Ethics, said through PIND, Peace Initiative In Niger Delta funded by Chevron Nigeria Limited, his organization has been in forefront of training farmers and creating awareness for their linkages in Niger Delta region.
He said it is their belief that all the Local Government Areas of Bayelsa gets facilitators in poultry value chain.
Commenting on the attendance, he said it was unprecedented as fifty persons was their target and expressed the overwhelming turn out of participants in Bayelsa State.
One of the participants, Stephen Oluma, said he learned a lot from the one day training which has afforded him the apple opportunities to net work with big time farmers, how to source funds and the awareness for farmers to insure their poultry farms in case there are incidents of flood and diseases. He suggested for more of such training workshop.
