Stakeholders in Ojokoro Local Council Development Area (LCDA) in Lagos State on Friday urged the government and residents to prioritise food production above building estates, to curb hunger.
The stakeholders spoke at the Lagos State House of Assembly’s 9th Constituency Stakeholders’ Meeting at Ojokoro in Ifako-Ijaiye Constituency II.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was held simultaneously in all the 40 Constituencies of the state.
The theme of the edition is “Ensuring Food Security for Sustainable Future: Youth Participation and Home-Grown Farming.”
Addressing the stakeholders, Emmanuel Olotu, a member representing Ifako-Ijaiye Constituency II at the Lagos Assembly, said that the current hunger had called for a shift of attention to food production above other things.
According to Olotu, the clamour for food sufficiency lately has been on the increase, hence the need for all residents and stakeholders to prioritise food production using all available lands and homes.
He said that addressing food insecurity had become “number one” for the people and all efforts should be concentrated on addressing hikes in food prices and scarcity.
Olotu said that as lawmakers, the House had created an enabling environment for farming activities to thrive in the state, especially through the passage of anti-open grazing of livestock Law to protect farmlands.
Calling for home-grown farming, Olotu said that food production systems must be capable of withstanding climate change, and economic variables, providing access to healthy food and promoting sustainable practices that preserve national resources.
“To achieve these goals, our farming capacity has to be widened, involving everyone, including the youth with the skills, knowledge and resources to drive agriculture, innovation and entrepreneurship within every community.
“To boost food production and also to force prices down to bearable limits, there is a need for strategic solutions and approaches to farming.
“I call on you all our constituents who have landed properties to prioritise using them for agricultural purposes to encourage participation in agricultural activities,” the lawmaker said.
Delivery a lecture on the theme, Omolade Balogun, said that issues of food production remained a collective business, hence each Community Development Association (CDA)must focus on its area of comparative advantage.
Balogun urged all council chairmen to declare a day for residents to showcase their homegrown food production to encourage residents.
Speaking with NAN, Shakin Agbayewa, the Deputy Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Lagos State, said that it was high time more lands were allotted for farm settlements rather than estates, to ensure food security.
“We have to go back to the basis, the policy that the state has as regards farm and estate is not ideal, almost all the lands have been hijacked by the government or reallocated back to the estate people.
“From Epe to Ikorodu, all you see are now estates. For us to farm now, the government has pushed us into the bush and this poses a security challenge.
“Government should please revisit that policy, allow farmers access to lands. No matter how lofty the idea of the government is without access to lands, we should forget it.
“The government must help us to bring back our farms and ensure security on those farms.
“They should encourage us by working more with the people they are the landlords renting their properties out,” Agbayewa said.
According to him, without food, those in the estates would not live.
Also speaking, the Chairman, of Ojokoro LCDA, Hammed Tijani, said that the council remained committed to supporting people interested in food production, especially in this economic hardship.
“Tijani, who highlighted many of his interventions and achievements, said, ” Food production should not be left for the elderly.”
A former Lagos lawmaker, Rasheed Makinde, who decried over-reliance on white-collar jobs, said that in advanced countries, many people practise urban farming.
Alhaja Silifat Olujimi, the Iyaloja General of Ojokoro LCDA, noted that residents should not wait until they have hectares of land before doing farming.
NAN reports that the meeting had various community stakeholders in attendance, including traditional, religious and political leaders, youth groups, and artisans among others.