The Lagos State Government has kicked off partnership programme with Niger and Kwara states towards bridging food supply-demand gaps under the Produce-4-Lagos initiative.
Deputy Director, Public Affairs of the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, Nike Sodipo disclosed this in a statement issued on Wednesday, February 7.
Sodipo disclosed that the partnership programme kicked-off following a meeting held at The Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja by the Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya with her counterparts, Commissioner for Agriculture & Rural Development, Kwara State, Mrs Oloruntoyosi Thomas and Commissioner for Industry, Trade, Investment and Private Sector Development, Niger State, Mr. Aminu Suleman Takuma.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya said, “As a market-city state, Lagos is consumer-centric and requires large quantities of food to cater for its population’s needs.
“Looking inward first, the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture is supporting local Lagos farmers to boost food production particularly in livestock, fisheries and horticulture.
“In large commercial quantities, Niger and Kwara, as part of the broader picture of attaining President Bola Tinubu’s food security agenda, have the competitive and comparative production edge in fulfilling the Lagos demand.
“President Tinubu made an executive order last year July around food security and he has lined up programmes to achieve this, particularly towards stemming the food inflation and ensuring youths are actively engaged in Agriculture and more importantly on how to scale food production.
“Kwara shares a border with Nigeria Niger, they have the land, people and capabilities to produce. This is an agenda that we have for a lot of states in Nigeria not just Kwara and Niger states.”
She stressed that historically, Nigeria was an agro-producing nation before the strength dwindled and it became expedient to reinvigorate the production capability of the states across Nigeria and ensure they were living up to their potential in terms of food production.
The Commissioner, who assured of sustainability of the partnership, said that governors of the respective states are already engaging but the meeting is to fine-tune and set the process in motion.
She said, “We understand our positioning as a state, which is the market for West Africa, so we are making efforts to ensure our people continue to get cheaper, wholesome and quality food and ensure the general prosperity and health of our citizenry.”
She added that in the last four years the Agricultural Road Map and numerous partnerships by the state have yielded fruits with the establishment of the Lagos Central Food Security Systems and Logistics Hub, Middle level Agroproduce hub as well as Last Mile Markets created by the state government towards ensuring food security and sustainability.
Olusanya who hinted that the phase one of the Central Food Security Systems and Logistics Hub, Ketu-Ereyun, Epe would be completed and commissioned later this year also expressed readiness of the state to receive food supplies from other states as she emphasised the need to ensure steady food supply to the hubs.
According to her, “There is nothing you bring to Lagos that will not sell, from tubers, to grains, and perishables because there is a target audience for it. It is not so much about reinventing the wheel, there are markets in Lagos for food items that come into the state.
“This will mark the beginning of collaboration with other states and subsequently we should be able to see better food pricing, reduced post-harvest loss and wealth creation for our farmers and value chain actors through improved revenues. We have to move in the direction that we are not just stopping in the area of production alone, value addition is key for us as a nation, to preserve, to keep our food longer and reduce wastage.”
The Kwara State Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs. Oloruntoyosi Thomas applauded the initiative which she described as a major milestone to boost agriculture in Nigeria, close the gaps of unemployment and increase food processing and production.
She said “It is a way of bridging gaps and building communities and empowering our farmers and it is about ensuring that there is food security. We are happy to key into this to be able to feed kwarans first before we can feed Lagos and Nigeria as a whole.”
On his part, the Commissioner, Ministry of Industry, Trades, Investment and Private Sector Development of Niger state, Mr. Aminu Takuma mentioned that the move would go a long way to further transform the agricultural strategy of Niger state to blossom and yield the needed fruits for economic growth.
He said, “What we have done today, is what will make the Agricultural Transformation strategy of Niger state work. Because the Governor has kick started it with the preparation of 600 hectares of land for cultivation. This will be allocated youth for cultivation and government will provide inputs input including the seeds and fertiliser.”
He added that “the thinking initially was who will offtake, now we have an off-taker, because we are going to be the producing state while Lagos will be the consuming state. What we need to know now is what producce do they want in Lagos, because everything you throw to the ground in Niger state grows.”
He expressed optimism that the relationship would engender robust development in the area of improving the food system while looking at other states coming on board to further develop the agriculture ecosystem.
Speaking earlier, Mr Cezar Rizzi, representing the Campo, a technical partner from Brazil, said that the partnership would benefit both countries as it has successfully engaged some other African countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda and Kenya.
He stressed that South America is a tropical area with similar climate to Nigeria and could help to improve agricultural productivity in such areas as cattle and poultry production among others.
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