ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, YENAGOA
No fewer than 115 rice farmers in Bayelsa State are to benefit from rice production programme sponsored by a non-governmental organisation, Stakeholders Alliance for Corporate Accountability (SACA), in partnership with the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC).
It was learnt that the activities for the first batch of participants, drawn from Yenagoa and Ogbia local government areas, are expected to start soon.
Speaking with reporters in Yenagoa, the state capital, shortly after an event tagged, ‘UNGP-P2R Protect, Respect and Remedy Project: Meeting with SACA Rice Farmers’, SACA’s Executive Director, Mr Kingsley Ozegbe, stated that the programme was a fallout of the group’s recent inauguration of the Environmental Management Committee (EMT).
He said SACA also formed the Agricultural Management Committee (AMC) and the Human Rights Due Diligence Committee (HRDDC), stressing that they were aimed at educating and helping communities achieve good development in the Niger Delta region.
Ozegbe noted that SACA had been engaging Biseni Clan to secure land for the cash crops (oil palm cultivation), reiterating that the NGO was partnering Bayelsa State Ministry of Agriculture and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to train rice farmers in 15 communities to ensure food security.
He said: “The EMC will enlighten and educate people on the hazards associated with oil spillages, the HRDDC will support individuals and project communities to secure respect of their human rights and access remedy where necessary, while the AMC will refocus people on agriculture to focus on commercial rice production and reduce reliance on oil and gas.
“We are starting off with 115 rice farmers from two LGAs of the state. They are Yenagoa and Ogbia local government areas.
“Today, we have 25 rice farmers participating as torch bearers, while a cumulative 90 vulnerable farmers will be attached to them to strengthen their productive capacity, potential to access agricultural credit facilities and reduce their vulnerability to abuse and violence.”
Speaking on the programme, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Chief David Alagoa, represented by the Director of Agricutural Services of the Ministry, Dr. Okoya Ebasi, the Deputy Manager, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Yenagoa branch, Mr Sheke Sunday, called on all beneficiaries to take the scheme seriously.
They said it was hightime ‘Bayelsans’ took agriculture as a business and not just as a means of eking out a living as peasant farmers, noting that the government could only give agriculture loans to those who practise agriculture as a business.
Also speaking, the Programme Manager of SACA, Mr Augustine Anyio, tasked beneficiaries to position themselves to effectively utilise the opportunities created by the agriculture sector of the economy to reap maximum benefits.
He noted that SACA would not be giving cash to farmers but improved rice seedlings and training on modern agronomy practices, explaining that each torch bearer would be fully supported to cultivate 50 by 100 plots of land in each of their locations for the project.