The Presidential Amnesty Programme has said it will train 500 ex-militants from the Niger Delta region in various skills relating to agriculture.

The coordinator of the programme, Paul Boroh said this at the graduation of ex-militants trainee pilot scheme at the Bio Resources Development Centre, Odi, Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

Boroh said some of the ex-militants will be sent to the Peremabiri Rice Farms in Bayelsa, while others will be sent to agricultural departments of the Delta State University, University of Port Harcourt and Rivers State University of Science and Technology.

Others will be deployed to the Songhai Farms in Delta State.

Boroh also supported that agriculture be made the alternative to crude oil in the Federal Government diversification programme.

He said, “The shift from reliance on agriculture to overreliance on oil income has had a tremendous impact on agriculture and the localities where crude petroleum is found.

“It has become the harbinger of hunger, starvation, unemployment and ecosystem degradation and that is the bottom line of the resource-based conflict in the Niger Delta.”