Z8-Vang.",rd, FRIDAY, MAY 18, Z01Z
BUSINESS/ AGRICULTURE
Lagos commissions 20,000 tons capacity per year rice mill, others -Creat'es about 50,000 agrlc Jobs BY OIJ\SUN"<AN MI AKONJ
Bank Assisted Commercial Agric Development ProJect,
CAD.
B set up an lIgr.cu1turallrans. ARELY 24 hours that Pres ident Goo Uuck Jonathan
formation ur plementation council charged with the responsibility 0: creating adm· tional20 milli(.o metric tons of food inlo Ule r,aLion's domestic food sUPF Iy by the year 2015 Governor Ba3atunde FashoIe Q.f Lagos State on Thesday, led federal df.legation to the offiaaJ kick of of rice process109 factoI'}. "ith capacity to produce 2O,OCO metric tonnes of nee per at Dum in Imota. lkorodu Loct..l Government Area of the stLle as part of ef· fort to boost domestic food productJ.on as weJas ensure food security by 20 15. Fasoola. ocolmpanied by the MinISter of Slale for Agncullure and Rural Development, AlhBji Buka llJaoi. also commissioned Poultry Estate, Enkorado wi h 10,000 burls capacity mec'lanized broller house, 2,000 hlfds per day processing Cd.laOty plant and 1.5T per hour feed mill 22.19 kilometre net> york of farm access roads III lkorodu Fish Fann Estate and tune other locallons lD the state Wlth counterpart rond from the state govemnent and World
Fashola commissioning the three projects which are all located lD tkorodu. said lus administration is conscously building a sustainable economy around agnculture, and IS ready to collaborate WIth the Federal Government, World Bank and the private sector m lurther rillSing the bar. "We are building a sustainable economy around agriculture in Lagos, and we are detemuned to do more. collaboraUng with the Fedent.l Government and the \oVorld Bank, W
Fashola said, adding that It was lugh lime jobless youths key Into the government's vision by engagmg msustamable and productive ventures in farm estates around Lagos.~ Specifically, he said there was no room for 'area boys' in Lagos. stress10g "the youths must roll up their sleeves and get to work.." "Let me use this opportunity to talk to our youths especially those who tag themselv~ s area boys that it Is time to stop rruscreancy in Lagos. The time for money without work lS over "Ouryouth5 must roll upthelr
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sleeves and work in the farms we are creating. They should go to the fann to support the economic development of the stale and the country and we Me ready to lead the way and support them "he said. He stressed th&l Nigeria could aclueve sell sufficiency in rood production and stop importation with the nght investment in agriculture, urging governmenls at all levels to give agric~l,!1~ the pnority it ·deserved. While stressing that the mill would slgmficantly boost rice production. Fashola .said the state planned to expand Its
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rice production of the present 250 hecta.res of nce land annually to about 500 hectares. H e appealed to the the Federal Government to help the state in its quest for increased production by allocating to it farmland around Ogun RIver Basin. Earlier., Mtnister of Agncu1ture., Dr. Akinwunmi Adeshin~, represented by TiJani, commended the Lagos State Government for building the nee mlll, saymg It would enhance the production of rice in the country. TIjani. disclosed that Niger· ia's need for rice wrucb sadly Is largely supported WIth lIDportatlon. willlut five nullion metnc tons by 20t5 He said the Federal Government would continue to collaborate WIth states, especially Lagos 10 boostmg nee production capacity and ensure total local sufficiency by 20 15 The state CommISSIOner for Agnculture and Cooperatives, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, giving an mstgbtlOto the Dee mill.
The 20, 000 m e tric /onnes rice processing fa ctory built by the Lagos State Government and commission e d by th e Gol'ernor Babatunde Pasho/a (SAN} in /korodu, Lagos
first of its kind In southwest Nigena.. saJd Ute mill was built with Korean technology to the highest operational standards to process 20,000 tons of paddy rice per annum, WIth addi· tional 10,000 ton storage facility and 45,000 ton capacty storage for finished nee.
'We lack adequate data on farmers in Delta' DY J I.M OH BABATUN D I!
s tate commis D sioner for Agriculture. Barmter Misan UkubeylnJe. ELT A
has said that agriculture is central to lh~ administration of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan. but said lack of accurate data on farmers in the stale 15 a major challenge. Ukubeymje explained that the tDlnistry 15 struggling to have accurate data on agriculture in the s\ate as that will as.5lSttbem in servi.cedelJ.very During an i nterview In La· gos, Ulrubeyir!je said ~even though "fe ru\e reglStration of fanners, we have not been able to have the right regIS ' tration of fanners and farms "He SaId to the governor, ag o nculture IS ce:ntral to tus ad· muuslraDon·s goal of build· LOg an economy without OIl "the policy of Governor Em · manuel Uduaghan IS to de· velop the rutal area through agriculture and that they are currently workmg on aqW!lculture and 'he tradItional
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~. crops where they have com· paraUve advantage. "Cassava is one of the oops, we an! worlong on that senowly and we are worklng WIth Federal government on that We are working on howtoimprove on the processing and packaging as well as other value chains." While~thalthegov
emment has set aside huge swn of money for massive (ood pro-
duction. he said "We plan to adueve thIS by ensunng that farmers operate in dusters so that mechanisation can be e{fediveand we are able to reach them whenever we want to. Ukubeyinje added .. we want to ensure that rice and cassava production go beyond consumption stage into commeroalisation because we have the tetTaln and potentiaJs." "We have a vision for nee production in the slate, we haye a po(jcy that we have charged each local government to produce rice, we haye a policy that ask them to acquire 25 hectare of land for rice culllvaLion and the government Just accepted the com· mittee we ratsed on that ." He said that though Delta was not among Ule states in the country ranked by the Federa! Government as nee pro· duong states, it had the po. tenhal 10 produce Ihe commodity 10 large quanUty to feed its people The Al;jnculture commISSion· er said on the production Side of the sector that they are open
to partnenng WIth the pnvate sector as they are currently working with the Bank of In· dustry in terms of Feed. mills as well as ObasanJQ Farms on poultry. "On our relationship with obasanjo lanns, we have a company, OFN/Delta, it is a large scale (ann that can take care of the poultry needs of the state, it can takecareo[thefeed nulls and other out growers need, and it is an equity arrangement. Speaking on small holder farmers in the state., Ukubeyinje said they are awa,re of the role the small holder farmers play in the rood secWi,ty o[ Ule natioo and that lllfbnn the provislOO of loans and agro mputs to them. " ~Just dlslributed Ntb loan (rom the Central Bank of Ni· geria to smaU scale fanners and the lowest amount they got was N500, 000. We are aware of the role of the small holder fanners and we cannot abandon tbem." He added ~the Important thmg about peasant fanrung IS
that we will be able to feed ourselves, this wiU reduce hunger." The state commlSsioner for Agriculture explained that the need to support ils small holder fanners informed why theywill still go ahead to supply them with (ertilizet despite the Federal government program on the ~wallet . -rhe complain of rertili7.er diversion is lrom the Federal government. the minister who did the research said the diversIOn was from them who buy and seU to us, we have told them that the e wallet tiling will not get to our farmers on Ume, so we still need to cater for our farmer if we don't do that we will be blamed for whatever happens." He SaId the adnunislrabon's polices and programs have gone a long way in reducing anger and violence in the slate as many of the youths are em· powered farmers through the Youth Empowerment through Agnculture (VETA) , and the Songhai Delta project.