A former Commissioner for Youth and Social Development in Lagos State, Mr Agboola Dabiri, has urged residents of the state to embrace urban farming.
\nDabiri said this at an agriculture empowerment programme organised by members of Ajowa Community Development Association (CDA) in Surulere area of Lagos State, in collaboration with Africanfarmer Mogaji, recently in Lagos.
\nAccording to him, embracing urban farming will increase\u00a0 and better their livelihood. adding, the empowerment programme is titled: \u201cFarm and Profit\u201d.
\nIn his lecture titled, \u201cGlobal Farming without Boundaries\u201d, Dabiri said\u00a0 residents must begin to create space for farming in\u00a0 homes, balconies, compounds and garages.
\nHe said agriculture was a huge value chain that included production, processing, marketing, distribution, packaging and many more.
\nDabiri urged the residents to develop a passion in any of the value chains to\u00a0 better their lots.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know the last time I bought lemon in Abuja. What I did was, I planted seeds in an old sack and that is what I have been using in my home.
\n\u201cIn Masha, here in Surulere, we have the biggest fruit farmers in Lagos. They are very organised and you can also join them by simply identifying where you belong.
\n\u201cAlso, in Surulere, we have one of the largest ram market and I am a member, because I also rear animals.
\n\u201cYou have to look at where you belong and explore all the potential in agriculture. During the last Ileya festival, I sold rams and I made profits, you too can do that. Agric is very profitable.
\n\u201cI buy my ram myself; rear it myself and give it to my boys to sell during festival. I have already started rearing ram against next festival.
\n\u201cResidents\u00a0 of Surulere must come together and see how they can promote urban farming and contribute to the food self-sufficiency of the state\u201d.
\nHe commended the Chairman of\u00a0 Ajowa CDA, Mr Tunji Adebayo, for organising empowerment programmes for members of his association.
\nAlso speaking, Mr Africanfarmer Mogaji urged the people\u00a0 at the local government level to embrace agriculture in order to feed the nation.
\nMogaji, in his presentation titled \u2018Farm and Profit\u2019, urged people in the urban area to embrace agriculture by way of processing, marketing, distribution, packaging and production.
\nHe said majority of people in the South-West zone were consumers of agricultural produce and not generating enough income from agriculture, because of lack of understanding.
\n\u201cThere are\u00a0 lots of opportunities in agriculture that remain untapped and\u00a0 people need to look beyond farming\u201d, he said.
\nIn his remarks, Mr Suleimon Bamidele, Chairman, Surulere Local Government Area, lauded\u00a0 the CDA and the council\u2019s support for continuation of the programme.
\nBamidele, who was represented by Mr Abayomi Ambali, Senior Special Adviser to the Chairman on Agriculture, noted\u00a0 that the council would continue to promote and support agricultural policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former Commissioner for Youth and Social Development in Lagos State, Mr Agboola Dabiri, has urged residents of the state to embrace urban farming. Dabiri said this at an agriculture empowerment programme organised by members of Ajowa Community Development Association (CDA) in Surulere area of Lagos State, in collaboration with Africanfarmer Mogaji, recently in Lagos. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-322759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322768,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322759\/revisions\/322768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}