As the Lagos State Government prepares for the seventh edition of the biennial Lagos Economic Summit, popularly called Ehingbeti, the state has identified some key agriculture value chains it hopes to leverage to achieve food sufficiency. It also said it would look at issues relating to power at the economic summit.
Speaking on how the state government intends to harness power for the development of the agriculture sector, Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture and Co-operatives, Prince Gbolahan Lawal said the agriculture value chains in focus are poultry, rice production, cassava cultivation, aquaculture, vegetable, post-harvest, and lairage.
Themed Powering the Lagos Economy: Real Opportunities, Endless Possibilitie and holding at Eko Hotel and Suites from 8th to 10th April 2014, the commissioner stated that like every other sector of the Nigerian economy, inadequacy of electric power has impacted negatively on the agriculture value chains — a development he noted as a threat to food sufficiency in the country and the continent as a whole.
The commissioner explained that absence or inadequate power supply has, for instance, been a major setback for farmers who engage in hatchery production, poultry processing, layer birds and broiler production as a result of high mortality of birds, increase in the cost of production and feed, and post-processing loss.
He stated, however, that by attracting investors into the power sector of the state economy, the state government is poised to reverse the ugly trend.
“Electricity is very crucial in the hatchery sub sector of the poultry industry in Lagos”, he said.
“It will reduce the cost of production of day-old chicks by about 50 per cent, which will invariably reduce the cost of producing broilers, cockerel as a result of economies of scale due to expansion of operations. The attendant market prices of these products will also reduce substantially”.
Lawal said that with improved power, there would be significant increase in capacity utilisation and output, revealing that the state poultry facilities alone are expected to increase by 30 per cent in the first year and over 75 per cent in the third year aside the multiplier effect on farmers in the private sector.
According to him, operations like feather plucking, digital scale weighing, chilling and cooling are 100 per cent dependent on electricity but inadequate power has made most processing facilities in the state to be operating at less than 15 per cent capacity due to high cost of diesel.
He said the high cost of powering irrigation facilities with generating sets has adversely affected the cost of production and milling thereby resulting in high cost of locally-produced rice in the market.
He said the availability of power would not only enhance rice production twice in the year, it would also result in almost 100 per cent yield and a further increase in production from the present two to three metric tonnes per hectare to between four and five metric tonnes per hectare in the first year of intervention.
“Electricity is a key factor for rice parboiling, drying, de-stoning, milling, processing and packaging, hence adequate power is capable of guaranteeing all-year availability of quality locally-produced rice”, he said.
“It will trigger the cultivation of rice from the present figure of about 1000 Ha to over 3000 Ha in the next few years of intervention. More jobs will be also created”.
For the cassava value chain, Lawal maintained that improved electricity would impact on the processing of cassava to flour, starch and other by-products, enhance further production of cassava to meet high demands and also engender sustainable Industrial growth especially for secondary up-takers.
He also said stable power is required for the drip irrigation and fertilisation of vegetables and to ensure full automation of the greenhouse, thereby increasing vegetable cultivation up to 250 to 350 tonnes per hectare.
While an estimated 60 per cent of harvested vegetables is estimated to be lost due to spoilage, the commissioner explained that regular electricity supply would lead to the establishment of conditioning centres as well as on-farm processing that will reduce post-harvest losses up to five percent.
“It has been projected that human population will reach 9 billion people in the world by 2050. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimated an increase of 70 per cent in food production from 2005 levels to meet the food requirement of the growing population”, Lawal said.
“To achieve this, there is need to grow, harvest, distribute, and consume food more efficiently. Our growing population is becoming increasingly urban; the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that seven out of 10 people will live in the cities by 2050.
“We’re not gaining additional resources like land or water, and the extreme lack of or extremely low electric power input and innovative technology will hinder the attainment of this goal”.
