Lagos State Government has solicited for the technical expertise of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FOA) to develop its coconut value chain through the acceleration of production, processing, utilization and commercialization of the value chain.
Obafemi Hamzat , deputy governor of the State, who made the solicitation in Lagos when he received representative of the Oragnisation to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, Fred Kafeero at his Office explained that such collaboration would help Lagos harness its potentials in the coconut value chain in particular and agriculture sector in general.
He stated that the collaboration would also help develop a robust database through general and specific surveys and studies such as baseline survey, local and international market survey, thematic studies, need assessment, improved and processing, marketing and management of the entire value chain.
“FAO as we know is the United Nations organ that deals with agriculture and nutrition globally. Looking at the various agricultural sub-sectors in Lagos – the coconut industry is one of them,” he said.
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“We are not only looking at production alone but processing, marketing. FAO should assist us with that and managing the entire value chain,” he further said.
“The UN food body is mainly research based. They are a technical organization,” he added.
According to Hamzat, the collaboration would also have the capacity to support and facilitate actors to sources of credit, markets and technologies for the development of the coconut value addition along processing and consumption as well as strengthen the capacities of the technical and extension services to effectively deliver coconut related technical messages.
Fred Kafeero, FAO’s representative to Nigeria and the ECOWAS noted that coconut-related issues were very important and seeing the plans that Lagos has put in place to address them was a driving force for the organization to collaborate.
He disclosed that there were lots of opportunities for employment either in production, processing, packaging; income generation for different segments of the society; nutrition; as well as increasing the GDP of the country through export.
“We have many other UN entities that have a bearing on agriculture as you know agriculture, if you take the entire value chain, requires the partnerships all over and we have all these skills within the UN,” he said.
“We learnt that there had been prior discussions way back as in 10 years ago with the FAO on this same coconut subject and upon enquiry, I learnt that there were lots of issues but I am glad that there is a new administration that is solely committed to the agricultural sector. For us at FAO, our commitment is still as firm as ever.
“I know that we can do a lot here. I see a lot of potentials, dedication, and commitment; the resources are also there. It gives us a lot of incentive to come and talk to you about this,” Kafeero asserted.
Speaking earlier, Abisola Olusanya, commissioner for Agriculture in the state disclosed that the ministry would work closely with the FAO group to develop a master plan around the coconut value chain that Lagos can work with to develop and grow its coconut industry in line with global best practices.
Olusanya explained that the collaboration would not be limited to coconut alone but other sectors of the agriculture landscape would be explored as well.
The Commissioner disclosed that the coastal belt in Lagos is over 185 kilometers while the riverine belt has over 700sq kilometers adding that the State singlehandedly produces well over 60percent of the over 300,000 metric tonnes of coconut produced in Nigeria, which makes her the 19th nation in coconut production globally.
Olusanya said that It was also important to note that Lagos is the only state with an agency dedicated to the cash crop – coconut hence the need to start looking at the many potentials in the sector which could be well over N35 billion in value on an annual basis cannot be over emphasised.
