The Lagos State Government has kicked off a partnership program with Niger and Kwara states towards bridging food supply-demand gaps under the Produce-4-Lagos initiative.
In a statement by the Deputy Director of Public Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Nike Sodipo recently, she said as a market-city state, Lagos was consumer-centric and required large quantities of food to cater to its population’s needs.
According to the statement, the Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya, recently held a meeting with the Kwara State Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs Oloruntoyosi Thomas; and the Niger State Commissioner for Industry, Trade, Investment and Private Sector Development, Mr. Aminu Suleman Takuma.
“Looking inwards first, the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture 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,” the statement said.
It noted that President Bola Tinubu made an executive order last year July around food security and he had lined up programmes to achieve this, particularly towards stemming the food inflation and ensuring youths are actively engaged in agriculture and more importantly on how to scale food production.
“Kwara shares a border with 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,” the commissioner said.
