Going by United Nations statistics, one in five people in developing countries live on less than US$1.9 a day, and mostly in rural areas, sadly, this category of people make up more than half of the global population, they depend directly on small-scale farming, forest resources, livestock and fishing for their daily subsistence.
Mayor Lucky Igbokwe in partnership with his foundation the Don Lulu foundation whom for over a decade has been committed to empowering the indigent and the less privileged in the society through scholarships, interest free loans, building of houses for the indigent, training the youths in skill acquisition, free medicare programs and supporting them to set up businesses, the foundation in a program titled; ‘Don Lulu Foundation Rural Youth and Women Development Program Through Agriculture” decided to train over 600 people in modern agricultural skills and also provide them with SEED money upon graduation.
This program which graduated its first batch of 600 trainees on saturday the 3rd of december 2021 is targeted at Reducing rural poverty by empowering the women and the youth population through agriculture.
This human Investment will over time strengthen production of agricultural products and reduce hunger and poverty in our rural areas thus making the people less dependent on white collar jobs, it will also serve as a key to developing a more inclusive agricultural sector with enormous potential to generate economic growth that is equitable and will reduce rural poverty.
According to the president and founder of Don Lulu Foundation Mayor Lucky Igbokwe, The project development objective is to raise the production of food, livestocks, incomes, and assets of participating households and farmer groups in every village across the 17 LGA,s in Abia state with Umuahia North as the pilot LGA, in a sustainable manner through implementation of small agricultural development subprojects planned and managed by community members and farmers’ groups, it will also impact economic empowerment of rural women and positively impact social norms while strengthening food security.
The second phase of the programme which has already taken off is aimed at sustaining the the successes of the first phase and will also bring more rural women into the programme, it is also aimed at building resilience, decreasing vulnerabilities and promoting economic empowerment.
Going by the testimonies of the participants in the first phase of the programme some of the the benefits include enhanced agricultural practices through access to productive assets, labour-saving technologies, market linkages and leadership training, which meant that they were able to learn how to increase their agricultural productivity, obtain more sustainable income and ensure better diet for their families.
When asked why he chooe to train and empower people through agriculture?
Mayor Lucky Igbokwe said and I quote, I dont believe in giving people things that will make them continue being dependent on me and the things I dash them, but I feel better when I give a man a fishing hook rather than dashing him a fish.
Aguoru
Writes From Umuahia
Don Lulu Foundation Creating Sustainable Empowerment Through Agriculture By Uche Aguoru
