Ogun State Government says it has increased rate of intervention to farmers across the State, as part of moves to ensure food sufficiency and employment generation.
The State Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Hon. Bolu Owotomo, made this known during a press conference at the Ministry, in commemoration of the annual World Food Day slated for October 16, where he reeled out the State Government's achievement on food security, in the past one year.
He said World Food Day, an annual event marked to raise awareness about hunger and the need for global collaboration for a sustainable food secured world, noting that this year's theme "hand in hand with a call for better food and a better future" expressed the power of collaboration between government, farmers, communities and partners working together to ensure nutritious food for all, while building resilience against challenges like climate change, economic pressure and global conflict.
Recapping the Ministry's achievements in the last one year, Hon. Owotomo said many intervention projects were carried out under different programmes such as Ogun State Community Action for Resilience and Economic Stimulus (OG-CARES FADAMA), under which, labour intensive and infrastructures, such as irrigation at Ado-Odo Farm Settlement to enhance all season's planting, roads and toilets rehabilitation with water facilities at Imowo, Ijebu-North East Local Government, construction of culvert and pedestrian Bridge at Okun-Owa, Odogbolu Local Government, were achieved.
According to the Commissioner, OG-CARES FADAMA also empowered farmers with agricultural inputs and assets that included 27 water pumps, 83 motorized knapsack sprayers, 12 cassava graters, 12 hydraulic pressers, 3 smoking kilns, 480 goats, 580 pigs, 12,000 day old chicks, 540 bags of poultry feeds, 290 Bags of NPK fertilizer, over 250 liuid fertilizers, 180 litres of agro chemicals, 24,000 fish juveniles with bags of fish feeds, which cuts across the 20 Local Government Areas of the State.
The Commissioner further disclosed that various completed and ongoing projects abound under Ogun State Economic Transformation Programme (OGSTEP), part of which were 100 petrol powered irrigation pumps for farmers to ensure all seasons farming, a number of poultry pens constructed at Odeda Farm Institute, Ijebu Igbo Ijebu and Mosafejo in Ilaro.
Other projects under constructions are rehabilitation of warehouse, procurement of solar dryer facilities, fish processing centres, among others, that cut across the State, while youths were encouraged to engage in home gardening as simple farm tools would soon be distributed to aid backyard agriculture practices.
Also speaking, the State Coordinator, South-West Commodity Farmers, Prince Segun Dasaolu, thanked the State Government for its various intervention strides, while pleading that government should pay more attention to farmers’ security as most farm locations were prone to risks.
Speaking on behalf of OGUN-CARES FADAMA Team, Mr. Bolarinwa Oladele thanked the State Government for its continued supports and timely release of funds towards distribution of infrastructures, inputs and assets, which he noted had positively on farmers and other stakeholders in agricultural values-chain.
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