Ogun Asks Residents to Consider Backyard Farming, Promises Support for Those Interested

Ogun State Government has asked residents to go into backyard farming to boost the state’s food security, amidst the food crisis in the country.

It promised support for residents, who have an interest in backyard farming with inputs, including seedlings.

The State Agriculture Commissioner, Honorable Bolu Owotomo, who pledged in an interview with a Rockcity FM correspondent, Yemi Eniola, said backyard farming would reduce their dependence on food in the open market whose prices are now very high.

The commissioner said his ministry was also approaching the education ministry to encourage schools with adequate land to go into farming, promising such schools with the necessary support.

Also, he said the ministry is working with directors of agricultural services in the state’s local governments, to establish farms to produce cash and food crops.

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The commissioner also spoke on the rice mill set up by the Amosun administration at Asero, Abeokuta, which stopped production in 2018.

He explained that Governor Abiodun had opted for the public-private partnership with Okun Rice to reactivate the rice mill, which recently resumed production of Okun Rice.

The commissioner said the rice mill was being encouraged to begin planting rice in the state, to stop its importation of paddy from other states, for milling in the state.

He said the Eggua axis of Ogun West has been designated as the state’s rice hub, adding that early this month, a conglomerate seeking 10,000 hectares of rice farming, was allocated 50 hectares in the area for demonstration farming in the first instance.

The commissioner also spoke on the insecurity, especially kidnapping, which is discouraging farming across the state.

That is the Ogun State Agriculture Commissioner, speaking on some of the efforts of his ministry to boost food production.