The Lagos State government says it has empowered over 31,781 youths and women in fisheries, poultry, rice and horticulture value chains in the last two years.
Commissioner for agriculture, Abisola Olusanya, announced this at a news conference in Lagos on Thursday to commemorate the second anniversary of the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration. Olusanya noted that 12,574 youths and women were trained, while 19,207 were empowered.
She explained that the training was informed by the need to encourage more youths and women to participate in agriculture in order to reduce unemployment.
She said for the state to attain food security and self-sufficiency by 2023, more people must be trained in the agricultural value chains.
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“The current administration is committed to growing the state’s agricultural sector and ensuring that it is less dependent on other states for the production of food.
“As a result of this, the state has continued with the empowerment, training and capacity development of the youths and women in selected key value-chains such as fisheries, poultry, rice and horticulture,’’ she said.
The commissioner added that several initiatives have been implemented in areas where the state has comparative advantage.
“One of such initiatives is the introduction of the Eko Schools’ Agric Comic and Agric App. “It is believed that this will stir up the interest of youths and teenagers in the agriculture sector.’’
Olusanya said that 19,207 youths and women were also empowered across all the agricultural value-chains with inputs and productive assets through the annual agricultural value chains programme. She noted that additional 1,577 Lagosians also benefited indirectly from the empowerment programme.
She said the state also partnered with Mastercard and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to train additional 192 youths in various agricultural value-chains. She explained that the partnership was aimed at building skills and creating work opportunities within the agriculture sector.
She stated that the collaboration was a strategic approach to agribusiness training to arouse the interest of youths in the agricultural space to enable them to make a decent living out of it.
Under the World-Bank-assisted Agro-Processing Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS) project, the commissioner said that 8,156 farmers and SMEs were identified, verified and given training in relevant areas of agribusiness.
“The APPEALS project is aimed at enhancing the productivity of small-scale farmers in the three identified value-chains of poultry, aquaculture and rice through capacity building, provision of infrastructure and empowerment.
“Also, 462 beneficiaries under the Women and Youth Empowerment Programme (WYEP) are being trained in agribusiness management, soft skills among others and have been empowered to start off production.
“Other beneficiaries will equally be supported before the end of the year,’’ the commissioner said.
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