Punch reports that the farms will be supervised and managed directly by the Rural Agriculture Development Training Scheme of the NDE.

The Executive Director, BATN Foundation, Mr Gbenga Ibikunle, handed over the project to the Director, Small Scale Enterprise, NDE, Chief Kunle Obayan, who represented the Director-General of the agency, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed.

The Ondo State Coordinator, NDE, Mr Joseph Olayinka, top officials of the agency, representatives of the state government led by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Ademola Olorunfemi, and residents of the community also witnessed the event.

The foundation also presented N3m to 20 graduates of the scheme to enable them start their own poultry business, while additional N3m was presented to the NDE to enable it manage and run the project on a sustainable basis.

Ibikunle explained that the project, which is already functioning and is yielding returns, consisted of three big poultry pens, generators, deep wells, storage tanks and other equipment needed for the operation of a successful poultry business.

The BATNF director said the project was of particular importance because of the organisation’s belief that government and its agencies alone could not solve the many economic problems that the country was currently facing.

He said it was in realisation of the new development strategy that emphasised Public-Private Partnership that led to the conceptualisation and implementation of the project between the foundation and the NDE.

"Within the last one year, the BATN Foundation and the NDE have demonstrated how this objective can be achieved by enrolling 20 graduates of the NDE RADTS training scheme in poultry production and marketing," he said.