Lagos Government gathers stakeholders for agricultural summit

Kenneth Afor, with agency report

The Lagos State Government will hold an agricultural stakeholders engagement with key players in the agriculture sector in the state to formulate a five-year agricultural action plan for the state.

The engagement, which is scheduled to hold on Wednesday September 11, 2019 and aimed addressing the challenges, x-ray opportunities and prospects in the state’s agricultural sector, was announced by Gbolahan Lawal, the state’s commissioner for agriculture.

Lawal added that the meeting will involve the convergence of agribusiness owners, agricultural change-makers, farmers’ associations and stakeholders to connect and be empowered for the next generation of agricultural change-makers in the state.

He said, “As Lagos State becomes a 21st-century economy, there is a need to sustain existing efforts of the agricultural sector in ensuring food security and also introduce new solutions.

“The idea, technology, and innovations that will take into account the day-to-day and evolving realities of farming, agricultural production, and food consumption will be discussed.

“The introduction of these new solutions, ideas and innovations are expected to transform today’s challenges into tomorrow’s opportunities in the agricultural sector.

“All these have necessitated the need to look carefully into strategies to increase agricultural production in the state towards feeding the teeming population. Thus, the ministry decided to organize the stakeholders’ engagement,” he added.

He hinted that the meeting would also involve representatives from multilateral organisations, including the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), ECOWAS, United Kingdom Department for International Development (UK-DFID0, United States of Agency for International Development (USAID), Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and Africa Rice.

Similarly, Lawal added that agribusiness firms such as Olam Nigeria Limited, Dizzengof, Meatco, Elephant Group as well as prominent agro-preneurs, academia, special interest groups; government agencies like the DAWN, embassies, commercial and development institutions will be present to be part of the summit.