The Lagos State Government has kicked off a partnership programme with Niger and Kwara states towards bridging food supply-demand gaps under the Produce-4-Lagos Initiative. The Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya, during a meeting with her counterparts, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Kwara State, Oloruntoyosi Thomas; and Commissioner for Industry, Trade, Investment and Private Sector Development, Niger State, Aminu Takuma; at the secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja assured of sustainability of the partnership, stating that governors of the respective states were already engaging, but the meeting was to fine-tune and set the process in motion.
“Kwara shares a border with Nigeria Niger, they have the land, people and capabilities to produce. This is an agenda that we have for a lot of states in Nigeria, not just Kwara and Niger states. 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. There is nothing you bring to Lagos that will not sell, from tubers, to grains, and perishables because there is a target audience for it. It is not so much about reinventing the wheel, there are markets in Lagos for food items that come into the state.
“This will mark the beginning of collaboration with other states and subsequently, we should be able to see better food pricing, reduced post-harvest loss, wealth creation for our farmers, and value chain actors through improved revenues”, he said. The Kwara State Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development, Oloruntoyosi Thomas applauded the initiative, which she described as a major milestone to boosting agriculture in Nigeria, close the gaps of unemployment, increase food processing and production. “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”, she said.
On his part, the Commissioner, Ministry of Industry, Trade, Investment and Private Sector Development of Niger State, Aminu Takuma explained that the move would go a long way to further transform the agricultural strategy of Niger State to blossom and yield the needed fruits for economic growth. “What we have done today, is what will make the agricultural transformation strategy of Niger State to work. The governor has kick started it with the preparation of 600 hectares of land for cultivation. This will be allocated to youths for cultivation and government will provide inputs, including the seeds and fertilizer”. He said that he is optimistic that the relationship would engender robust development in the area of improving the food system while looking at other states coming on board to further develop the agriculture ecosystem.
A representative of Campo, a technical partner from Brazil, Cezar Rizzi, earlier in his remarks, said that the partnership would benefit both countries as it had successfully engaged some other African countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda and Kenya. He stated that South America is a tropical areas with similar climate like Nigeria and could help to improve agriculture productivity in areas such as cattle and poultry production, among others.
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