The Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms Abisola Olusanya, has said that no fewer than 3,000 agripreneurs in artisanal fisheries, poultry and piggery value chains would be empowered at the 2021 Agricultural Value Chains Enterprise Activation Programme on July 29.
“This year’s agricultural value chains enterprise activation programme will be coming up on Thursday, 29th July, 2021. We will be giving out farm implements and other inputs to 3,000 agripreneurs across three value chains of poultry, piggery and fisheries”, Olusanya said in a statement on Sunday.
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She explained that 70 per cent of the beneficiaries would be women and youth who had been specifically targeted under the three value chains because statistics had shown that they were the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and zoonotic diseases, in addition to the fact that they represented the value chains in which the state had comparative and competitive advantage.
In giving a breakdown of the beneficiaries, the commissioner said: “These will include 300 Lagos Agripreneurship Programme (LAP) and Agricultural Youth Empowerment Scheme (Agric-YES) participants, 400 pig farmers and 680 fishermen.
“Others are 190 fish cage culture beneficiaries, 360 egg marketers, 500 fish processors, 200 rice farmers as well as 370 crop farmers.
“We will be empowering farmers with tractors, ploughs, disc harrows, fishing boats, outboard motor engines, nets, fish-finders, thresher battery cages, point of lays and poultry feeds.
“Others are de-feathering machines, de-stoning machines, juveniles, fish feeds, medications, pig growers, smoking kilns, GP tanks, freezers, herbicides and many more.”
She noted that the programme was in line with the Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led administration’s THEMES developmental agenda whose fourth pillar focuses on making Lagos a 21st Century economy.
Through the programme, the state would be fast-tracked to attain food self-sufficiency and reduce its dependence on other states for food, the commissioner added.
Olusanya stated that the selection process was free of any political interference as all the beneficiaries were either selected on merit or through nominations by their various cooperative associations.
She urged all prospective beneficiaries to fully maximise the empowerment, so that they can be agriculture ambassadors that the state would be proud of, while serving as inspiration for younger prospective agripreneurs. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)