LAGOS SCALES UP EFFORT TO ADDRESS FOOD PRICING, REBRANDS AGRIC MINISTRY

Lagos State government has promised to ensure that efforts aimed at reducing the current high food prices and building a proper reserve management system are continuous in the State. This comes following the rebranding of the Ministry of Agriculture to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems.

Speaking at a Press Briefing held at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre on Wednesday to officially announce the new name, the State Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Systems, Ms. Abisola Olusanya said that the aim is to review the activities of the Ministry and plan for a better performance towards managing the current food crisis and ensuring food sufficiency in Lagos.

Olusanya said that food production is an entire system that accommodates numerous activities and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration is leveraging on quality partnership to drive the process.

According to her, “Food, as we all know, is essentially the bottom line of all that we do as a Ministry which cuts across several activities, from storage, processing, logistics, preservation to packaging and that Agriculture encompasses a lot more than just production. A lot is happening behind the scenes to ensure that in terms of pricing of food, we can bring it down and the inclusion of Food Systems is a process towards achieving this feat”.

The Commissioner also mentioned that the Ministry will have three additional departments, namely, the Department of Livestock Services, the Agricultural Engineering Department, and the Agricultural Produce Safety and Quality Control Department.
 
“In Lagos, we are constructing a feedlot, we know Lagos as the hub not just for marketing of food, but also the fact that when it comes to cattle, sheep and goats, Lagos remains epicenter where these particular livestock are sold, processed and consumed:, she noted.

Olusanya maintained that the Five-Year Agricultural and Food Systems Road Map launched in 2021 highlighted projects and programmes which centred around issues of domestic self-sufficiency, upcountry partnership, storage processes and logistics capacity development as well as a modern food market, stressing that the state will be working in that direction going forward.
 
She added that the harmonisation of the farmers’ database has assisted greatly in extending adequate support to the farmers in clusters, thereby increasing food production and reducing food prices.

Her words: “We have farmers cutting across poultry, fisheries, vegetable, piggery, rice because Lagos had a competitive advantage in these areas and when you consider the population you will see that it is for us to do precision support, and it would help us to engage the farmers and enhance their capacity”. 

While speaking on the impact of the Middle-level Agro produce platform in the Mushin area of the state, Olusanya hinted that the Food hub has in the last 40 market sales recorded transactions of food worth over 918 million naira with 339 vendors selling goods at the Hub free of charge. The data was seamlessly retrieved because the market is in a controlled environment.

“For the first time we can give data around the quantity of specific food items coming into a market, we can tell you who is selling what and we can give a price that which they are selling. And to understand all of these, it helps to address challenges we see across board. To ensure food quality, safety, and food pricing a new department, Produce Safety and Quality Control has been created to deliver value to Lagosians”, the Commissioner revealed.

She also engaged the journalists on the fair distribution of food palliatives to the indigent people of the state among other interventions to come in the coming years.