Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has stressed the need to deploy more resources to revive and upscale all the machinery and systems in the Lagos Food Production Centre in Badagry so it can be opened for commercial production.
Sanwo-Olu announced this while speaking in Badagry during an on-site inspection tour of the 279- hectares property, formerly the Songhai Food Production Centre.
Lagos is known to be a consumer’s state, with the bulk of root and tuber crops, local poultry products, and fruits and vegetables coming from Nigeria’s south western states while its northern states supply cereals, beef and mutton.
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The state could not meet the fish demand of its population despite the fact that 22 percent of its surface area is covered by water.
This deficit encouraged a massive importation of fresh and smoked catfish from neighboring states as well as frozen fish from Europe.
According to the governor, focusing on local food production would enable the state to meet its food needs, generate employment opportunities for youths and transform agriculture into a commercial- and export- oriented production.
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“I have been fully briefed about this project but I considered it necessary to personally embark on this journey to Badagry in order to take assessment and see what exactly we need to do in terms of intervention.
“After taking a tour of the project site, what I observed is that the entire project looks more as a job that has not been completed. Therefore, we need to improve on the interventions to the Ministry of Agriculture.
“With very minimal resources, we have seen what the Ministry has done to keep the project afloat. Government will raise the resources and turn around this project to the level it should be.”
