Lagos increases efforts to realise smart agriculture

By Daniel EssietAs technologies for enhancing productivity keep advancing, the Lagos State government has assured that it will promote its use in the agricultural area.The Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms Abisola Olusanya, who made this known, noted that agriculture driven by technology and data could create and provide the added value to meet consumer needs appropriately through farming.She said the government was determined to enhance agricultural mechanisation, specialised extension services and agro-processing, adding that there is an arrangement to purchase tractors for use by farmers.She said the risk associated with food supply is getting higher due to the rise in food demand driven by population growth and economic development.To solve these challenges, she assured that the government would advance the development and dissemination of emerging technologies, such as smart agriculture technologies.To address the problem of household food security and poverty among the small holder farmers, she said the Federal Government in 2002 initiated and designed the National Programme for Food Security (NPFS).Lagos, according to her, being one of the states selected for the pilot phase, recorded an impressive performance which qualified it for the expanded phase and later on the third phase.She said Lagos sustained (NPFS) in all its nine sites across the three senatorial districts through the State Programme for Food Security (SPFS) to further enhance food security of Lagosians.She said the Lagos State Agricultural Development Authority, an agency under the Ministry charged with the responsibility of generating and disseminating improved farming technology.She added that most of the farmers find it difficult to procure and adapt some of the technologies being dissiminated due to paucity of funds.Against this background, she said the ministry came up with the idea of procuring and distributing various farm inputs such as knapsack sprayers, organic manure,cutlasses, hoes, safety gadgets,digital movable scales, compost plus, water pumps to farmers groups to assist them in expanding their farms and food production.A total of 6,650 farmers had benefited. She urged the beneficiaries to effectively translate the various inputs into bountiful harvest.
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