No fewer than one thousand two hundred and fifty-two farmers have been empowered by the Lagos State Government under its agricultural value and empowerment programme aimed at reducing poverty in the State.

According to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, the one thousand two hundred and fifty-two farmers in the state has been supported in various farming enterprise and empowered to boost their productive capacities in line with the State’s food security objective.

Ambode, said the Agricultural Value Chains Empowerment Programme is a strategic approach employed by government to enhance productivity and improve standard of living of small holder farmers, fishermen, agro processors and marketers through the provision of inputs, productive assets and capacity building so as to ensure the steady supply of food to Lagosians.

He said food security became a major challenge as a result of the drastic decline in oil revenue, stressing that it had now become imperative to conserve foreign exchange by reviving the agricultural sector through policies and programmes that will encourage more people to go into farming and increase food production.

Ambode said government as a matter of policy has ensured that basic infrastructural facilities are evenly distributed across the state especially in rural communities despite the fact that most farming activities are based in the rural and semi urban areas.

According to him, “Our objective is to make our communities liveable and centres of economic activities. This strategy we believe, will reverse the trend of rural to urban migration and also make farming more attractive especially to young people”,.

While stressing that his administration was committed to ensuring food self-sufficiency for the teeming population through well designed and thought initiatives, the Governor said his administration will not relent in its effort to encourage farming activities in the rural communities by reducing the infrastructural gap between rural and urban centres.

He said government has procured a 32 metric tons per hour rice mill to sustain the production and processing of local rice in the State which will create over 500,000 jobs in form of manpower to operate the mill directly.

Ambode spoke through the Commissioner for Agriculture, Oluwatoyin Suarau at the flag off ceremony of the 2018 Agricultural Value Chains Empowerment Programme.

Earlier in his address, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Olayiwole Onasanya said government through various the farming enterprises which include; Egg Marketers, Piggery, Butchery Poultry Production, Vegetable Production, Perishable Produce Trading, Sheep and Goat Production, Aquaculture, Fish Feed Input, Artisanal Fisheries and Fish Processing, was working towards food sufficiency .

Said he, “This administration has made food security one of its cardinal programmes which serve as tool to poverty alleviation and sustainable economic growth through agricultural development to underscore fiscal responsibility”.

He added that farmers in the State have been assisted, through various programmes and projects, with valuable inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides adding that government is also increasing their access to mechanized farming through purchasing of tractors and other related implements.