Diri to Bàyelsa Youths: Embrace Farming, It's a Career, Not Punishment * Receives AFAN Award

By Majesty Inegbagha

Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has urged youths in the state to embrace agriculture as a viable career and a pathway to wealth creation.

Dr. Peter Akpe, Deputy Governor, Bàyelsa State 

Diri, who spoke on Friday through his deputy, Dr Peter Akpe, during the 2026 World Food Day celebration in Yenagoa, described farming as a blessing rather than a punishment, stressing that agriculture offers enormous opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship and economic empowerment.

The event, held at the Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha Memorial Banquet Hall, had the theme, “Innovate Today, Nourish Tomorrow.”

The governor called on youths to take advantage of the state’s agricultural potential, while encouraging civil servants and families to embrace backyard farming. He also urged financial institutions to make credit facilities more accessible to smallholder farmers.

Diri said Bayelsa’s abundant water resources and fertile land provided a strong foundation for agricultural development, adding that his administration had established strategic partnerships to improve food production and strengthen food security.

He noted that the state had commenced its maiden dry-season farming programme at Otuasega Farm in Ogbia Local Government Area.

According to him, the state government, in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria, had also installed rice mills at Niger Delta University and the Federal University, Otuoke, to facilitate the processing and marketing of locally produced rice.

The initiative, he explained, was aimed at ensuring that Made-in-Bayelsa rice moved from farms to markets, while thousands of farmers across the state’s eight local government areas had received seedlings and other agricultural inputs.

The governor further disclosed that young people had been trained in modern farming techniques through a partnership with CSS Integrated Farms.

He urged farmers and aspiring agripreneurs to adopt innovative agricultural practices suited to Bayelsa’s terrain, including the cultivation of flood-tolerant crops and the use of modern aquaculture to complement traditional fishing activities.

Diri also advocated soilless farming, improved processing and storage facilities, strategic partnerships and cold-chain systems to reduce post-harvest losses and food wastage.

He commended the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the LIFE-ND programme for supporting young people in agribusiness. He also praised the Peremabiri Farmers Cluster for demonstrating the potential of organised and innovative farming.

On farmers’ security, the governor warned herders against attacking farmers in the state, stressing that Bayelsa’s law prohibiting open grazing remained in force.

He charged the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources to intensify efforts towards achieving the government’s agricultural targets, particularly the production and availability of locally grown rice for residents during the Christmas and New Year festivities.

“Let me be frank: government cannot do it alone, and it should not try to do so. Our role as a government is to create an enabling environment and provide access roads,” he said.

Diri added that his administration would sustain its focus on road infrastructure, including the construction of bridges leading to farms and the development of farming settlements.

He also pledged continued efforts to improve security for farmers and their crops, insisting that the responsibility for actual food production rested largely with the people.

“The actual farming must be done by our people. I therefore call on our youths to see agriculture as a career, not a punishment,” the governor stated.

He observed that people from outside Bayelsa were increasingly taking advantage of the state’s agricultural potential by engaging in farming and fishing.

Diri, therefore, urged Bayelsa youths to increase their participation in agriculture and take advantage of available government programmes.

“The grant beneficiaries and agripreneurs sharing their stories with us today are living proof that agriculture in Bayelsa is not only a way of life but also a business that can create wealth and jobs,” he said.

In his address, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Prof. Beke Sese, disclosed that more than 17,300 farmers had received direct support from the state government since 2020 through various agricultural intervention programmes.

He listed the Accelerated Agricultural Development Scheme, Diri BOOST and the Prosperity Farmers Grant Scheme among the initiatives through which farmers had benefited.

Sese said 2,106 farmers, fishers and processors across the state’s eight local government areas had received grants in 2026 alone.

He noted that the beneficiaries were expanding their cultivation activities and laying the foundation for increased agricultural productivity and economic prosperity.

The commissioner also announced that the state’s 410-tonne-per-day rice milling plant was fully operational and processing paddy into polished Made-in-Bayelsa rice.

“We are cultivating 106 hectares of rice and buying paddy from the communities we supply, so that while you plant, you know a buyer is waiting,” he said.

According to Sese, the rice produced by the plant was undergoing laboratory analysis for food and nutritional certification ahead of its formal introduction to the market.

He disclosed that Governor Diri had set a target of producing 300,000 kilogrammes of Made-in-Bayelsa rice by the end of 2026.

“Bayelsa is indeed strengthening its drive towards food sufficiency and economic prosperity,” he added.

AFAN Honours Diri

In his remarks, the National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Dr. Farouk Rabiu Mudi, commended the Bayelsa government’s agricultural initiatives.

Mudi, on behalf of the association, presented Diri with an Award of Excellence, recognising him as the Best Governor in Agricultural Connectivity and Farmers’ Support in the Country.

He explained that the award programme, launched in August 2026, followed research and assessments of agricultural programmes implemented by state governments across the country.

According to him, AFAN selected 12 governors for the awards, with two governors drawn from each of Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.

Mudi also presented a crown-shaped trophy to the Bayelsa governor, explaining that the special recognition was reserved for only six governors nationwide.

He urged communities and farmers’ associations that had yet to register with AFAN to do so to strengthen farmers’ participation and representation in the agricultural sector.