The Lagos State government has decided to create opportunities for a critical and productive section of the Lagos state population to channel their talents and energies into agricultural activities. It, therefore, used the Lagos State Agricultural Development Authority (LSADA) and the State Committee on Food and Nutrition (SCFN) to train over 300 women, youths and agricultural extension officers. It also empowered them for the production and processing of the orange fleshed sweet potato. The state’s Commissioner for Agriculture and food systems, Abisola Olusanya, said the reason behind the selection was as a result of women and youths making up over 60 percent of the state’s population.
Justina Balogun, Head of Women in Agriculture and Nutrition, disclosed that popularising orange fleshed sweet potato and domesticating the practice in Lagos state are the reason for organising the training programme, adding that the participants will be given vines to plant and will be taught how to process and add value to the crop. “We want to popularise its production and processing. It can be processed into various varieties such as; flour, garri, chin-chin, cake, among several others and it has a lot of nutritional benefits.
“It does not really need much agronomy practices, no need for fertiliser and at the end of the day you will get a lot of vines.”
Engineer Alade Adewale, Ag. Programme Manager LSADA while speaking said that one of the units at the Agency is empowering women with activities around orange fleshed potato and called on the participants to take advantage of the crop. That apart from the local production they can export the derivatives from it. “We are trying to tell the women that they can do a lot with the orange fleshed potato, starting from the production, to processing and to marketing. We want the farmers to know the various benefits that can be derived from cultivating and processing the crop to make ends meet,” he said
