Source: This Day
Nigerian farmers and other agriculture
stakeholders have expressed displeasure over the
N365 billion spent every year on rice importation
into the country's markets. The Commissioner
for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Lagos state,
Prince Gbolahan Lawal said this at the unveiling of
the value chains business manual packaged by
the Commercial Agriculture Development Project
in Lagos.
The commissioner who was represented at the
event by Mr. Tunde Giwa of the same ministry
said it was better to ban the importation of rice
gradually to allow locally produced rice, like the
Ofada rice to thrive. He said banning the
importation of rice will also reduced
unemployment among the youths in the country
He continued by saying that the commercial
agriculture development with the assistance of
the World bank has supported 741 farmers under
the rice value chain with various inputs including
tractor, milling machine, threshing machine,
combine harvester, willower, agrochemicals and
many more adding that commercial agriculture
development has also intervened in land
preparation for rice by changing the operating
system from manual to mechanized system with
the provision of 4WD tractors and implements
which has reduced the cost of land preparation
from N30,000 to N50,000 per hectare
Giwa said "Commercial agriculture has supported
over 1284 farmers under the poultry value chain
with various inputs including nipple fitted battery
cages, tricycle, egg transport crates, combined
hatchery and incubator, defeathering machine as
well as promoting the use of nipple fitted battery
cage for poultry birds by project beneficiaries as
against the open drinkers system and it has
resulted in reducing the mortality and disease
transmission by over 15 percent, increase in egg
production by 20 percent and feed waste by over
40 per cent" He continued by saying that the
commercial agriculture has also supported 1483
farmers under the aquaculture value chain with
collapsible fish tank, extruding technology, fish
seed, solar submersible pumping machine as
well as acquisition of improved smoking kilns and
improved packaging materials, commodity
interest groups in the state under the aquaculture
processing value chain Professor Adewale
Dipeolu a guest speaker from the federal
university of agriculture, Abeokuta in his address
thanked the Lagos state government for taking
agriculture away from peasantry to big business
adding that the step Lagos state has taken will
help the country as a whole move from small
scale production to large scale production with a
profit making attitude He also beckoned on the
government to back agriculture with
infrastructure, long term funds, land and
adequate intermediate technology. He however
told farmers to be alert to change in government
policies and environment as well as market
forecasts. Adewale continued by saying that
farmers should also be very innovative and learn
how to go with market trends adding that
innovation will assist in placing agriculture
business in Nigeria in the map of the world > He
said " Is a good thing Lagos state government
and indeed the Minister of Agriculture Adewunmi
Adeshina is taking agriculture very serious, this
action will help increase innovation and create
employments and at the long run, Nigeria can
feed itself and feed other nations as well". Mr
Kehinde Ogunyinka, the state project coordinator
of commercial agriculture development project
thanked guest for attending and added that
commercial agriculture will not relent in its efforts
to assist small and medium scale farmers in
producing high quality produce for food security
need of the teeming populace within and outside
the state
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