The Lagos State Government has charged farmers in the State, especially beneficiaries of Lagos State Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS) project, to improve their productivity for food security in the country.
Speaking during a monitoring exercise to APPEALS project sites at Badagry, Abisola Olusanya, Lagos State acting Commissioner of Agriculture, said APPEAL project sponsored by the State Government in conjunction with the Federal Government and World Bank is aimed at supporting farmers’ productivity and their linkage to markets.
Olusanya also disclosed that the Imota Rice Mill of the state government, which would be the largest in Africa when completed, would commence operation in December.
The acting commissioner visited some clusters groups and beneficiaries of the APPEALS project in Gayingbo, Gberefu, Afowo, and Torikoh farms in Badagry.
She said Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has a key interest in agriculture and that was why the incumbent government is fully supporting the APPEALS project to empower the people of the state, especially women and youths in the identified three value chains – aquaculture, rice, and poultry.
“Agriculture is key for us in terms of food security. We need to start supporting our producers. We need to invest in them and we need to help them around the kind of margin that they are going to make for them to have sustainable production,” she said.
While expressing her enthusiasm to youth participation in agriculture, especially how 12 young graduates from different institutions across the country formed a cluster group at Sej Farm in Torikoh, Badagry to invest in aquaculture business with massive supports and empowerment by the state’s APPEALS project, Olusanya said the involvement of youths in agriculture is crucial to the future of Nigeria.
Also speaking during visits to the farms, Oluranti Sagoe-Oviebo, project coordinator of APPEALS Lagos, disclosed that 800 farmers recently attended sensitisation training on rice farming, which focused on them appreciating the importance of their input for Imota Rice Mill as an essential stakeholder in the state.
Sagoe-Oviebo revealed that the rice farms in Gayingbo and Gberefu have benefitted immensely from the APPEALS Project through grants to engage in mechanise farming as well as the distribution of rice seeds, auto-rice sprayer, transplanting machine, fertilisers applicators, tractors, and trenchers to over 200 farmers operating on different farms, which is made up of about 400 hectares.
Commenting on the visit to Sej Farms Ventures and Afowo Cage Culture with both rearing thousands of different species of fish, the project coordinator of APPEALS explained that the beneficiaries are mostly youths with existing fish farms and they were strategically selected in order to benefit from the project to add value to fish products.
She said 12 graduates who formed themselves into a cluster group in Sej Farm have embraced technology and they are currently processing fish into fish crackers and burgers and not just for cooking alone, adding that all efforts would be put in place to improve on technology for the business to grow to the extent that all supermarkets in Nigeria will sell only fish crackers and burgers made in Nigeria.
Speaking during the visits to all the farms, representatives of each farmland expressed gratitude to Governor Sanwo-Olu administration and Lagos APPEALS Project for having the interest of farmers at heart by investing and empowering them in fish and rice farming as well as providing necessary supports in term of equipment and technology.
Segun Atho, national deputy president of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, who is also the coordinator of rice farmers in Gberefu, promised that the rice farms in his area would contribute about 60 percent to the operation and sustainability of the Imota Rice Mill when it begins operation.
Samuel Obitunde, head of Rice Clusters in Gayingbo, disclosed that over 50 farmers, who are mostly youths are currently working on over 100 hectares of land in the area, noting that APPEALS project had supported them with over 600 bags of fertilisers, five tons of ofada rice seeds, three trenchers, auto-rice sprayers, two transplanting machines, and fertiliser applicator.
Jubril Wenayon, a beneficiary in aquaculture, who is a young graduate, revealed that he partnered with 11 young Nigerian graduates to form a cluster, which is made up of 12 people to venture into fish farming.
He disclosed that his cluster has benefited immensely from the project intervention and support.
