The Lagos State Government has restated its commitment to invest in the youths population to further develop the Agriculture ecosystem.
The State believes youths involvement in Agric will allow it to attain food security and boost the economy.
Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu reiterated this position during the distribution of agricultural Inputs and production assets to fishing and farming communities in Eti-Osa, Epe, Lagos Island and Ibeju Lekki areas of the State
The activation support Programme is in continuation of the empowerment of fish, poultry production and processing, cold storage solutions and horticulture production in the twenty Local Government Areas of the State, under the year 2022 Agricultural Value Chains Enterprise Activation and Farmers’ Support Programme.
Governor Sanwo-Olu who was represented by his special adviser on Rice Mill initiative, Dr. Oluwarotimi Fashola explained that the State had developed a five-Year Agricultural and Food System Roadmap to galvanize public, private, and donor agency efforts in agriculture with youths centric programmes.
“One of the challenges confronting agriculture in the State is an aging farmer and fishermen population and most youths who make up about 60% of the State’s population are not interested in agriculture as a profession because of drudgery in the System.”
“it is the wake of this fact, that the Ministry partnered with innovative companies to introduce technology in agriculture, especially the upstream sector. This is evidenced by the recently launched Tractor-on-the-Go project which is a tractor hailing service designed to facilitate easy and affordable access to mechanization services through applications installed in mobile phones and integrated agricultural projects implemented in the state secondary schools tagged Lagos Agric Scholars Programme to stimulate the interest of school children in agriculture.”
“Other youth-centered efforts include the Lagos Agripreneurship Programme with the goal of training 15,000 youths with a passion for agriculture of which 3,000 has been successfully trained and plans are being put in place to train an additional 1,200 youth this year. Aside from these, this Administration has trained 51,476 and empowered 25,691 women and youths in different agricultural value chains, such as the Cage and Pen Culture, Poultry, Rice Production, Snailery, Bee Keeping, Coconut Arts and Craft amongst others, using various government platforms” he said
The Chairman Eti-Osa Local Government Mr Saheed Adesegun applauded the state governor for initiating the support Programme aimed at uplifting the farmers in the locality thereby improving the food base of the State.
The Chairman who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Mr Sulaimon Adekanmbi stressed that programme is a pointer to the commitment of the State Government to agricultural sector and development of the State economy.
He said” This proramme is a clear demonstration of Mr Governor’s determination to improve the standard of living of the farming community in Lagos State, we appreciate the available tools here and your vision to take the State to another pedestal.”
So far, farmers and agric processing value chains stakeholders in 15 out of the 20 constitutionally recognised Local government areas as well as their entailed Council Development areas have been empowered.