The Lagos State Government says it has kicked off partnership programme with Niger and Kwara states towards bridging food supply-demand gaps under the Produce-4-Lagos initiative.
As a market-city state, Lagos is consumer-centric, requiring large quantities of food to cater for its population’s needs.
At the meeting held at the Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja by the Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya, with her counterparts, Commissioner for Agriculture & Rural Development, Kwara State, Mrs Oloruntoyosi Thomas, and Commissioner for Industry, Trade, Investment and Private Sector Development, Niger State, Mr. Aminu Suleman Takuma, Olusanya said her ministry is supporting local Lagos farmers to boost food production particularly in livestock, fisheries and horticulture.
“In large commercial quantities, Niger and Kwara, as part of the broader picture of attaining Mr. President’s food security agenda, have the competitive and comparative production edge in fulfilling the Lagos demand.
“Kwara shares border with Niger; they have the land, people and capabilities to produce. This is an agenda that we have for a lot of states, not just Kwara and Niger,” commissioner said.
The commissioner who assured of sustainability of the partnership said the governors of the respective states are already engaging, noting that that the meeting is to fine-tune and set the process in motion.
She said: “We understand our positioning as a state, which is the market for West Africa, so, we are making efforts to ensure our people continue to get cheaper, wholesome and quality food and ensure the general prosperity and health of our citizenry.”
The Kwara State Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development, Thomas, applauded the initiative, which she described as a major milestone to boost agriculture in Nigeria, close the gaps of unemployment and increase food processing and production.
She said: “It is a way of bridging gaps and building communities and empowering our farmers and it is about ensuring that there is food security. We are happy to key into this to be able to feed Kwarans first before we can feed Lagos and Nigeria as a whole.”
On his part, the commissioner, Ministry of Industry, Trades, Investment and Private Sector Development of Niger State, Takuma, mentioned that the move will go a long way to further transform the agricultural strategy of Niger State to blossom and yield the needed fruits for economic growth.
He said: “What we have done today, is what will make the agricultural transformation strategy of Niger State work, because the Governor has kick started it with the preparation of 600 hectares of land for cultivation. This will be allocated to youth for cultivation and government will provide inputs, including the seeds and fertiliser.
Speaking earlier, representative of Campo, a technical partner from Brazil, Mr Cezar Rizzi, said the partnership would benefit both countries as it has successfully engaged some other African countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda and Kenya, stressing that South America is a tropical area with similar climate like Nigeria and could help to improve the agriculture productivity, such as cattle and poultry production among others.
