Mrs Adegbemisola Fayoyin, the Coordinating Director, Osun Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security says the state government is investing in agriculture to ensure food sufficiency in the state and the country at large.
Fayoyin said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Osogbo on Wednesday.
She said the state Government in February, created a working platform for farmers as part of its post COVID-19 economy plans, where they were connected with off-takers to boost their production.
“We had a meeting with farmers before the planting season in February where they were asked what they wanted and how the state government could assist them to boost and support their operations.
“The farmers asked for creation of a market for their commodities and the state government arranged, connected and linked them with off-takers like: Flour Mills, Nestle, Cadbury, vegetables oil producers and others, who assured that they will buy their commodities and this, would in turn increase farming production in the state.
“Recently, the state government through the state ministry of agriculture provided palliatives to farmers in terms of farming inputs like corns for planting, cassava stems, fingerlings for fish farmers, among others.
“Cocoa seedlings were also made available to cocoa farmers at the cost of N30 per seed (the cheapest in the whole of the Southwest).
“These efforts are part of the state government’s COVID-19 economy recovery plan.
“Linking farmers with Federal Government/CBN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme are other arrangements made to help farmers to access loan and expand their farming business which will boost food production,” she said.
Fayoyin said that another Federal Government programme – Livestock Production and Resilience Support Project (LPRES) – is also providing palliatives and infrastructure to the state’s rural farmers and vulnerable as well as training agric extension workers to assist farmers in their operations.
She said all these efforts and the late season planting that was ongoing were geared toward food sufficiency, so that there would be no food shortage.
She noted that all these efforts were expected to start yielding positive results from next year. (NAN)
