The British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF) has partnered with the Lagos State Government to host the 2023 Lagos Farm Fair as part of activities to mark the United Nations’ (UN) World Food Day, which was held recently at the Police College, Ikeja.
The Lagos Farm Fair is an initiative under “Wealth is Here,” which is aimed at ensuring food adequacy and sufficiency.
With the theme: “Water is Life, Water is Food; Leave No One Behind, the fifth edition of the Lagos Farm Fair, is geared towards taking actionable steps both by the government and the organised private sector in ensuring that foods are made affordable and accessible in the state.
The BATNF partnership with the Lagos state government is in tandem with achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2, 6, 8, 10 and 13, which ultimately aim to improve human living conditions through a healthy diet and promote action against hunger in the state and this year’s fair has been able to support over 600 smallholder farmers.
Present at the event was the Executive Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who stressed the need for collaborative efforts and innovation to sustainably scale up agricultural production to meet demand.
He also disclosed that a central food logistics hub will be completed next year, which is intended to reduce waste and loss.
His words: “Farming is an important component of our government’s activities. We need to grow what we eat and eat what we grow. While we have collaborated with some major agricultural states within the country, we are also looking for independent paddy rice farmers across the federation to raise paddy supply at Lagos Rice Mill.
“We need a lot of paddies to meet production capacity. It doesn’t matter how much paddy rice they have; we are ready to take it up. This is calling on paddy growers across the country to key into this opportunity.”
Speaking at the event, Ruth Owojaiye, who represented the Board of Directors of BATN Foundation, OdiriErewa-Meggison, asserted that the initiative aligned with the core objectives of the Foundation. She also gave stewardship of the achievement of BATN Foundation in the installation of 100 solar-powered borehole facilities (20,000-liter capacity) with over 300,000 beneficiaries and irrigation kits to smallholder farmers on over 500 acres of land to support dry season farming and boost their income, all achieved in five years.
Since its inception in 2002, BATN Foundation has supported the Federal and State Governments in agricultural development programs and has invested over N2 billion in supporting rural smallholder farmers in the production of food crops, like cassava, rice and maize and in aquaculture and livestock.
“So far, we have reached over 1.3 million beneficiaries and we expect to double that in the next 10 years through increased support to smallholder farmers across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT,” she said.
Lagos Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya, noted that the event was held in the wake of critical food security issues facing the country and required urgent actions to scale up food production across the various value chains.
“Not only is Lagos playing a frontline role in the aqua farming industry, we are also key players in the production of other crops and edible produce. This year’s commemoration of World Food Day is to come out and encourage our farmers and create a platform for them to be aware of all the incentives and interventions we have created for them,” she stated.
BATN Foundation has partnered consistently over the years with the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Stanbic IBTC Bank to sponsor the World Food Day -Lagos Farm Fair celebration, a platform designed to create market linkage to farmers as we recognize the integral part they play in nation-building.
