• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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What we’re doing to boost food security- Lagos Commissioner for agriculture

food market

Lagos State government has unveiled various agricultural programmes to boost production and achieve sustainable food security.

Commissioner for agriculture, Gbolahan Lawal, at a media briefing on Thursday, said some of the initiatives taken by the government would ultimately move the state from its current food security status of the 18 to 40 percent.

He listed some of the projects to include the Songhai project now known as Avia Food production centre, the Araga food production centre, the establishment of one ton per hour fish feed mill (extruder system) and the establishment of the wholesale produce market.

Others, according to Lawal, are the establishment of strategic food reserve, upcoming 32 metric tons per hour rice mill at Imota; the optimal utilisation of the farm settlements and estates in the state; empowerment of Lagos Agriprenurship Programme (LAP) graduands as well as the establishment of 160 hectares feedlot at Imota, Epe.

He added that the present situation of food security in the state has been especially impacted by the lessons learnt from the corona virus pandemic, a situation that has made deliberate efforts and policy formulation on the part of the government imperative.

The commissioner said these deliberate efforts and policies would shore up food production, reserve and the supply system in Lagos.

“In line with the five-agricultural development road map earlier developed by the ministry of agriculture that highlighted intervention areas to boost productivity along the value chains where the state has comparative advantages, this pandemic has brought to fore the need to shore up quickly the food security status of the state previously at 18 percent with a goal to scale up to 40 percent in order to prevent another kind of pandemic in the form of food scarcity.

“This therefore calls for deliberate effort and policy formulation on the part of government in order to prepare for future events that may want to test the food reserve and supply system of the state.

“The ministry is therefore to embark on some of these projects in the course of the year to shore up the food security status of the State,” Lawal said.