The Story Your path to the story
Lagos State Government yesterday said that it has empowered no fewer than 879 farmers and Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) across poultry, aquaculture and rice value chains have directly benefited from the Lagos Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS) Project in the last three years.
The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya who disclosed this over the weekend at the Pre-6th Implementation Support Mission of the Project held at Orchid Hotels, Lekki, explained that these farmers and SMEs have been empowered with physical inputs and equipment to help them improve their productivity in the stipulated value chains.
Olusanya, who was spoke through the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Olayiwole Onasanya noted that another set of 3,516 stakeholders in the agricultural sector also benefitted indirectly from the APPEALS Project while well over 8,000 farmers received one form of trainings and demonstrations with strong evidences of positive resultant effect on the output of these stakeholders and farmers.
According to her, the State Steering Committee and State Technical Committee have been performing their oversight functions in ensuring that the Project implementation remains on course adding that the Project’s stakeholders have so far been satisfied with the level of interventions.
“It gives me great pleasure to address the members of the Pre-6th Implementation Support Mission of the APPEALS project here in Lagos today.
“This is yet another opportunity for us to interact and contribute immensely to the actualization of the project’s objective of enhancing agricultural productivity of small and medium scale farmers and improving value addition along the chosen priority value chains which are Poultry, Aquaculture and Rice in the State.
“The State Steering Committee (SSC) and State Technical Committee (STC) have been performing their oversight functions in ensuring that the project implementation remains on course and I make bold to say that project stakeholders have so far been satisfied with the level of interventions.
“A total of 879 Farmers, SMEs have been supported directly with physical inputs and equipment across Poultry, Rice and Aquaculture while 3,516 stakeholders have benefitted indirectly. Over 8000 Farmers have received trainings/ Demonstrations with strong evidences of positive resultant effect on the Project Development Objective,” the Commissioner said.
Olusanya disclosed that the State Government is providing maximum support to the Project in ensuring that the contributions of these value chains to food security, local production, improvement of livelihood as well as creation of export market are sustained as Government through its T.H.E.M.E.S developmental Agenda is exploring and investing in the use of innovation and technology to create competitive advantage in ensuring that Lagos attains a 21st century economy and agriculture remains one of the major drivers in achieving the feat.
