By Anthony Otaru, Abuja
Economic growth will remain zero worldwide without agricultural growth because both are interwoven and expected to promote citizens’ living standards.
In Nigeria, agriculture has remained the backbone of the economy, employing over 70 per cent of the population, providing the daily food needs of the people, and contributing immensely to the non-oil sector earnings for the government. This all-important sector has never disappointed in providing the needed raw materials for the nation’s industries.
For example, despite the trade tension which has affected exports of products globally, Nigeria’s non-oil sector (mainly agriculture and solid minerals) exported in the first quarter of 2025 rose by 24.75 per cent to $1.791bn as recently released by the Nigerian Exports Promotion Council (NEPC).
The NEPC report also stressed that the figures represent a 24.75 per cent increase over the $1.43bn reported in the first quarter of 2024.
The report also showed that a total of 197 distinct products were exported in the first quarter of 2025, adding that the figures also reflect an increase compared with 162 products recorded in the first quarter of 2024.
It is on this basis of the above that the LIFE-ND project- a brainchild of the LIFE-ND Livelihood family Enterprise in the Niger Delta, took the bull by the horns to train 60 staff from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) on modern knowledge and techniques to support rural farmers in key areas of rice, cassava, plantain, oil palm, cocoa, poultry and fishery productions that constitute the LIFE-ND Projects seven commodity areas of youths and women empowerment in the nine Niger-Delta states.
The capacity-building programme, held in partnership with Adventium Songhai Delta Ltd, located in Amukpe, Sapele local government area of Delta State, drew participants from the NDDC supervisory cadre, directors, deputy directors, assistant directors, senior managers, assistant managers, chief administrative officers, assistant administrative officers, and officers 1, 2 categories to get acquainted with modern agribusiness skills.
The programme was themed: “Innovative Agricultural Systems, Agribusiness and Climate–Smart Aquaculture.”
During the five-day training, experts and professionals from Adventium Songhai, a company specialising in agro-production, industrial processing training, and tourism hub, made different presentations and demonstrated.
“Overview of the Nigerian Agricultural sector, challenges, trends and opportunities, Climate Smart Agriculture and innovative Farming, with emphasis and demonstrations on Songhai Farm mode—ZERi, Smart farming and application of Technology in Agriculture Development.”
Other topics presentation include- “Climate Change and Impact on Agribusiness, Structure and Importance of Value Chain, Market Linkages and Farm Income, Digital Marketing and E-commerce for Agribusiness Development as well as Fishing and Aquaculture, Development in Nigeria, -Modern Techniques in Aquaculture and that of Aquaculture breeding and spawning.”
In his opening remarks, the National Project Coordinator, LIFE-ND Project, Dr Abiodun Sanni who Mrs Ngozi Ohaechesi represented, disclosed that the training is expected to enhance the NDDC personnel to supervise and support local agribusinesses in the Niger-Delta region effectively.
NDDC co-founded the LIFE-ND Project, which began six years ago with IFAD funding support in other Abia, Bayelsa, Cross-River, Rivers, Delta, Edo and Ondo oil-producing states.
“This is our first major training for Akwa-Ibom, Imo, and Rivers, where sixty participants have been selected from across the board to benefit from the training and impact farmers within the region,” she said.
Mr Frank Oputu-Tonye, a Director of Agriculture and Fisheries at NDDC, who Dr Winifred Madume represented, reaffirmed the commission’s commitment to sustaining the initiative through a continuous funding mechanism and support.
He said, “We are using this platform with IFAD through the LIFE-ND project to transform agricultural practices and improve livelihoods across the Niger Delta, using modern agricultural technology to make a significant impact.”
On his part, the Managing Director of Adventium Songhai Delta Limited, Mr Isaac Ogbodo, the partnership firm whose team provided the expertise and resource professionals for the training programme, said that the whole idea is focused on building technical and operational capacity across key value chains including aquaculture, cassava, oil palm, poultry and rice production even as he emphasised that it is an opportunity for participants to address real-world challenges while acquiring modern skills in agriculture.
“We will use aquaculture to evaluate broader issues in the value chain of finance, sustainability, logistics and market access,” he said.
At the end of the training, three syndicate groups were constituted from among the participants to discuss and aggregate the benefits of the training from different perspectives of all the presentations and lectures.
Altogether, the final submission of the aggregated views from the three syndicate groups showed that a proper understanding of the various topics presented has not only improved participants’ knowledge of innovative and smart agriculture but has gone a long way to equip them with modern technology and ideas for full optimisation of resources to create opportunities that will bring massive revolution into agricultural production and greater market access capable of boost in farmers performances in the Niger-Delta Region.
A cross-section of the participants expressed optimism about the training’s impact and pledged to transfer the skills and knowledge gained to local communities, strengthening agriculture productivity at the grassroots.
One of the participants from Delta State, Mr Osamah Steven, expressed his gratitude to the LIFE-ND Project, stressing, “This is one of the best capacity-building training I have attended in recent times.”
Also speaking is a Chief Administrative Assistant Officer from the NDDC, Mrs Adefisayo Ebunoluwa, who expressed appreciation to the commission for the capacity-building programme.
In his closing remarks, the Head of Administration and Logistics, Mrs Ngozi Ohaechesi, who stood in for the National Project Coordinator of Life-ND Project, Abiodun Sanni, expressed the management’s appreciation to the Federal Government under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu and the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, for their overall support for the programme’s success.
