Lagos APPEALS to construct, rehabilitate 13.16km farm roads

The Lagos State Government has revealed that its World Bank-assisted Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS) Project would be constructing and rehabilitating no fewer than 13.16km farm access roads in four cluster areas across the state.

The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya who said this in Lagos, explained that the access roads when completed would aid better movement to and from the farms; reduce losses particularly by egg farmers occasioned by incidents of broken eggs as a result of bad road and subsequently improve the productivity of the concerned farmers.

Olusanya noted that the four clusters areas include Igbodu and Araga in Epe, Erinkorodo in Ikorodu and Afowo in Badagry, adding that the evaluation and engineering design for the four roads have since been finalised and construction would commence immediately.

“The Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Support (APPEALS) Project is a World Bank assisted project 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.

“The project will be rehabilitating and constructing 13.16km Farm Access Roads (FARs) already identified in four different clusters across the state. The design of the Bill of Engineering Measurement and Evaluation for the four FARs is at the final report stage. The advertisement for potential contractors and subsequent implementation will be carried out once the work plan is approved by Mr. Governor,” she said.

According to the Commissioner, 1,621 regular beneficiaries under the Project’s Women and Youth Empowerment Programme (WYEP) had been trained in agribusiness management and other soft skills within the last two year, out of which 462 of them have received ‘No Objections’ on their Business Investment Plans (BIPs) and are presently implementing their projects, adding that other beneficiaries would equally be supported before the end of the year.

Olusanya stated that the APPEALS Project had equally identified and verified 9,942 Farmers and Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) out of which 8,156 of them had received at least one form of training in relevant areas of agribusiness with a view to enhancing their agricultural productivity and improving value addition.

She said no fewer than 460 beneficiaries were sponsored for one training, workshop and conference out of which 425 of them are farmers.