Packaged dried catfish for export at the exhibition
By Tosin Adeniran
Over 80,000 farmers in Lagos have benefited from the rural infrastructure intervention of the Lagos State Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP).
According to a report presented by the state’s CADP at a media parley and product exhibition recently, the project has directly supported 3,506 farmers under the aquaculture, rice and poultry value chain.
The report revealed that under the aquaculture value chain, CADP has supported 1,483 farmers with various inputs, and together with its Community Interest Group (CIGs) pioneered exportation of smoked fish to the United States of America.
It produced high quality and internationally-accepted smoked fish using local method of processing with a reduced benzopyrene level, thereby increasing productivity level from 150kg dry weight of smoked fish 2,400kg per month.
Under the rice value chain, the report says the state CADP changed the land preparation for rice from manual to mechanised system with the provision of 4WD tractors and implements, reducing the cost of land preparation from N30,000 to N5,000 per hectare.
Also, the adoption of system for rice intensification improved the rice yield from between one metric tone per hectare, in 2009 to between two and to 3.5mt/ha this year.
However, 741 rice farmers were also provided with various inputs including tractors, milling machines, threshing machines, combine harvesters, storage bins, rotary dryers, willowers, de-stoners, agro-chemicals, tricycles, improved seeds, motorised sprayers and few others.
The state CADP promoted the use of Nipple Fitted Battery Cage for poultry birds against the open drinkers system, which reduced mortality and disease transmission by 15 per cent, increased egg production by 20 per cent and feed wastage by 40 per cent.
Following the installation of the poultry waste-drying equipment in Aiyedoto Poultry Estate, the state CIG produced 20 metric tonnes of dried poultry waste, which was bagged in 50kg bags, reducing the problem of poultry waste management in the estate, generating over 25,000 laying birds and about N140,000 for the 300 farmers in the estate.
A total of 22.19km rural roads in 10 locations have been constructed by the state CADP, which led to establishment of 115 new poultry farms in the Aiyedoto and environs.
The Director of Agriculture services, Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative service, Dr. Ola Onasanya, said CADP focuses on assisting farmers and promoting local farm produce in the international market.
Represented by Omolola Olude, the director said the present task ahead of Nigerian farmers is how to feed 21 million people, and, therefore, implored the media to help promote local produce.
He lamented the non-availability of land, saying it has discouraged many farmers, as farmers need to make adequate use of the land available.
“Land is not available. The little one available should be used extensively. Efforts to move agric service is not only the job of the government but the farmers too,” he said.
According to him, Lagos State places great importance on agriculture, especially the CADP project, adding that the government’s effort is to take farmers to highest level.
Onasanya added that that CADP project has brought about a lot of innovations to the local farmers and the state is proud of the achievements of the project.
He further explained that agriculture contributes 12 per cent of Lagos Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and assured farmers that the state government is collaborating with bank of agriculture to ensure they benefit from the single digit interest.
Explaining the plan of the state government on rice production, he reiterated that Lagos contributes 25 per cent of the food production in the country and intends to produce 25 per cent of rice in the country.
The state project coordinator, Kehinde Ogunyinka, noted that CADP is a five-year programme that will run till 2014 and it contributed12.75 per cent of the state’s GDP in 2012 and over 6,000 jobs in the state since 2009.
He said the state poultry farmers would be introduced to another variety of birds that would lay more eggs, to ensure high productivity.
In his keynote address on media and challenges of food security in Nigeria, Gboyega Akosile said agricultural journalists should always prioritise the interest of the different sectors of the agriculture industry and consumers.
Tasking the media to help build a public agenda to overcome massive social deficits on the food and nutrition fronts, he said the media need to work consciously towards building the national economic planning.
He added that transformation of agriculture should be a deliberate move by the media.
According to the media expert, environmental and climatic change has brought worry to the agriculture sector, and research has forecast that 50 per cent of crop yields from farmland might fall in Nigeria and other sub-Saharan African countries, and eight per cent of fertile land will transform to dustbowls, useless for cultivation or grazing.
He further explained that Nigeria is one of the vulnerable countries, citing its high population growth, urbanisation, inflation and demand from neighbouring countries which have further heightened the fear of food insecurity in the county.
A fish farmer, Tiamiyu Nurudeen, said media need to project more salient issues in agriculture and help focus on the country challenges in agric.
For him, the farmers within the chain of CADP are less than those who can reform the agro sector in the country.
Lamenting the bad policies on importation of agro produce, he said feeds he brought into the country were at the port for more than three weeks.
“At the end of the day, when it gets to the farm, it will be costly. Price of feeds in Republic of Benin is cheaper than in Nigeria.”
He called on the government to invest in the recent discovered “market inform kiosk” which allows farm produce to be uploaded online, adding that online marketing is growing fast for farm produce.
“Market inform kiosk will go a long way to assisting farmers. Three more marts would be introduced before the end of the year,” he said.