About 37 emerging poultry farmers in Cross River State have received 16,000 day old chicks to boost their budding poultry business in Cross River State.
Similarly, 15 emerging fish farmers have received 21,000 juveniles (cat fish) to boost their enterprise.
The donation is courtesy of the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises – Niger Delta (Life – ND) project.
The project is funded by IFAD, alongside the federal government, states within the Niger Delta region as well as the Niger Delta Development Commission.
The State Project Coordinator for the project, Innocent Moses, disclosed this in Calabar while giving an update on the project.
According to him, 37 youths have been provided with 16,000 day old chicks and each person has an average of 492 chicks.
“Similarly, 1,160 others have been trained and some of them have been provided with working capital.
“About 339 hectares of land has been surveyed out of the 2,000 hectares acquired for the project with 105 hectares developed and 5.7 lkm of Earth roads have been completed.
“On fish production (cat fish), 15 fish farmers were supported with 21,000 juveniles for the first cycle of production”, he said.
He explained that the project has a 12-year life span which is broken into two phases and is targeting 4,250 people.
He listed the ten LGAs in the state which are beneficiaries as Akpabuyo, Akamkpa, Biase, Yakurr, Obubra, Ikom, Ogoja, Yala, Obanliku and Obudu.
He said the overall goal of the project is ” to realise a transformed rural economy in which the rural population can drive prosperity and equal benefit.
“Our objective is to enhance income, food security and job creation for rural youths and women through agri-enterprise development on a sustainable basis in the Niger Delta region,” he said.
The total budget outlay for the project is $94 million with IFAD providing $60 million while other partners will provide $34million.
About the Author
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
