L-R :Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs Olatokunbo Emokpae; Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya; Beneficiary of the Training and Empowerment for Rice Farmers, Mrs Oshinowo Balogun; Chairman, Lagos State House Committee on Agriculture, Mr Kehinde Joseph and Special Adviser Lagos State Governor on Agriculture, Dr. Oluwarotimi Fashola, during the Training and Empowerment for Rice Farmers, Agricultural Training Institute, Araga, Epe, on Wednesday. Photo: Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture.
The Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture has trained and empowered 500 rice farmers across the State as a measure to standardize farming techniques, set good quality for rice production and also compete with international value.
Speaking during the Training and Empowerment programme, on Wednesday, the Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Agriculture, Dr. Oluwarotimi Fashola, said that the programme is designed to add value to rice production and also improve its nutritional values.
Dr. Fashola stated that the huge population of Lagos State provides a viable ready-make market for rice producing, stressing that efforts must be intensified to discourage importation of foreign rice such that locally produced rice can gain a good market share.
He said that the Lagos State Government has invested huge resources into the development of agriculture production especially the rice value chain. According to him, in year 2008 and 2015, over 1000 youths in the State were trained and empowered in modern agricultural rice farming techniques process.
While saying that the training process includes, Production, Processing and packaging of EKO OFADA Rice and EKO Rice, the Special Adviser hinted that the success of the Programme has led to the establishment of the first Integrated Rice Mill in South Western Nigeria at Imota with the production capacity of about 12,000 tons annually.
In his words: “The Imota Rice mill has 2 lines of 16metric tones per hour, which after completed will produce about 2.4 million 50kg bags of Rice. This will require over 200,000 tons of paddy which will be cultivated over 60,000Ha of Paddy field with single cropping.
“This therefore calls for huge investment in paddy aggregation, rice production technology, extension services, land opening and mechanization of the production processes as the Imota Rice mill has been planned to commence production by the end of the year.”
Also speaking at the event, the Honourable Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya, implored the beneficiaries to ensure they put to practice all knowledge impacted on them during the training.
She said though the empowerment has not covered all rice farmers in the State yet, it will do a lot to assist the farmers on their various farms.
She said the Knapsack Sprayer, Fertilizer and Faro 44 Rice Seedlings they were empowered with will assist them to a large extent if they follow all they have learnt at the training, adding that the Lagos State Government is ready to buy their paddy from them.
The Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture, Honourable Kehinde Joseph during his goodwill message to the beneficiaries, implored the 500 beneficiaries never to let the Lagos State Government down but ensure they perform beyond expectations by setting International standard in their produce.
He disclosed that for every single beneficiary empowered that means the government has empowered four or five persons in a family.
