Hon. Bolu Owotomo, Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security said this during a 2-day training organised by the Contec Global Agro LTD, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Ogun State Economic Transformation Project (OGSTEP). The theme of the workshop is ‘Training For 2024 Planting Season and Distribution of Inputs and Seminar to the Farmers.” The workshop , which was designed for the farm extension officers, was held at the OPIC Plaza, Office, Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta. The commissioner said that the training was another parameter and milestone in ensuring farmers’ improvement in agriculture output and their livelihood, saying that it would enhance their productivity and agricultural value chain.
He said “Indeed, food security is our top priority in the state, as the administration led by Dapo Abiodun has ordered the massive empowerment of farmers across the state, including women farmers, so the state had distributed both crop inputs, herbicides and birds to the farmers, to boost their productivity and make food available for people’s consumption.”
He further said that over 500 women farmers were given N50,000 each to boost their food products, while the government is also to provide them agricultural equipment, in terms of mechanised farming to boost and increase their farming outputs.
Mosunmola Owo-Odusi, OGSTEP Project Coordinator, said the training was set aside to improve the capacity of the state farmers. “As you can see OGSTEP is an agency of change, it encourages extension officers, and farmers, empowers them through training and retraining, and also educates them on new methods to use in their farming productivity and outputs of their food production,” she said