The Lagos State Government has trained and empowered 500 rice farmers from three senatorial districts to improve rice production by 20 per cent in the state.
Mr Kehinde Joseph, the Chairman, Lagos State House of Assembly, House Committee on Agriculture, stated this at the opening ceremony of a three-day training for rice farmers at Agricultural Training Institute, Araga, Epe on Wednesday.
Joseph said the training and empowerment programme was organised by the state government through the office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Rice.
The theme of the training is: “Good Agronomic Practice (GAP) for Lagos Rice Farmers.”
Joseph said that the farmers were drawn from the three senatorial district of the state namely Epe, Ikorodu and Badagry.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that farmers received knapsack sprayers, bags of fertilisers, rice seedlings and farm coats.
Joseph said that the programme was part of the state government empowerment to the rice farmers to attain food self sufficiency.
He said that aim of the programme was to develop the rice value chain in line with the on going Imota rice mill.
According to him, we believe that instead of us going to the north to purchase the paddies for Imota mill when completed, it will be much better to train our own farmers in Lagos.
“We will buy back every paddy from them after harvest.
“We discovered that majority of the farmers in the southern part of the country are not into rice farming and since we are bringing a very large rice mill into the country, the best thing is to train them so that they will know better on how to grow the paddy.
“With what the Lagos State Government have been able to do today, we will give them seed, fertiliser, coat, chemicals and training manual.
“I believe within the next three to four months, they will start harvesting the rice and the state government has promised they will buy it back from them.
“Indirectly, government have been able to empower a lot of residents.
“This is laudable programme. All the necessary assistance through the legislative means that they needed, the house of assembly will surely give it to them,” he said.
Joseph noted that with the empowerment and other agricultural programmes, the state government, was working toward achieving food sufficiency.
He said that the house of assembly would continue to support agricultural development.
Ms Abisola Olusanya, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, said the programme was designed to improve the production of paddy in the state by educating the farmers on improved farming methodology and techniques.
Olusanya noted that the training would expose the farmers to good agronomic practice and equipped them in the act of modern rice farming.
She urged the farmers to take good advantage of the training and ensure judicious use of the inputs adding that the opportunity would help them meet their daily requirements and making Lagos a food-secured environment.
Olusanya said that the expectations from the rice farmers was to train their children and members of their communities in order to expand the development of the rice value chain in the state and Nigeria at large.
“This programme is to teach rice farmers best agronomy practice around rice farming, at least if we don’t even have as much land as other parts of the country, we are able to have increase yields.
“This is to get rice farmers from Ikorodu, Epe and Badagry and teach them new methodology and agronomy practice that will help them,” she said.
Dr Oluwarotimi Fashola, Special Adviser to the Governor on Agriculture, said that the past and present government had invested a lot in rice production since 2008.
Fashola noted that the government had recorded recent successes in the development of the rice value chain especially with the establishment of the two lines of 16 metric tonnes per hour rice mill in Imota, Ikorodu, which would soon be inaugurated.
He said when completed, the mill, would require over 200,000 tonnes of paddy yearly to produce about 2.4 million 50kg bags of rice.
“However, the government has realised that such investment may not yield expected dividend without an investment in the capacity building and training of rice farmers in the state.
“Thus, the state through the Ministry of Agriculture embarked on training of rice farmers and empowering them to improve their livelihood.
“This year, 500 rice farmers had been trained and are being empowered with knapsack sprayers, bags of fertilisers, seeds and farm coats,” he said.
The special adviser noted that the programme was to assist farmers to produce at least 20 per cent of rice paddy that would be in need in the Imota mill before the end of 2022.
According to him, the state government has developed a target of using the land cultivable for rice within the state to attain about 20 per cent paddy requirement for Imota rice mill.
“Rice is an important staple food coming only after wheat and maize world over.
“Between 2008 and 2015, more than 1,000 youths have been trained and empowered in the state in production, processing and packaging of EKO ofada rice and EKO rice.
“A rice mill is on its way, and by God’s grace, before the end of this year, it will be inaugurated and rice milling in Lagos state will start in earnest,” he said.
“For this year and 2023, 20 per cent of the paddy for our rice mill must come from the state and for us to be able to achieve that, that is why we are having this training and empowerment for all our farmers.
“This inputs should not be diverted, or used for other things and must not be sold. It must not be kept in your houses, we want you to use it for the intended purpose.
“With this, we hope that a substantial paddy will be produced and at least, we should be able to get up to 2,000 tonnes and above from the farmers that we are empowering today,” he said. (NAN)