Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is set to commission the newly constructed middle-level food Agro-hub, located at Idi-Oro in Mushin area of the state, aimed to proffer a new way of food distribution in Lagos and also address problems associated with post-harvest losses, inflation, among others.
The State’s Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya, made this known in a statement issued on Saturday, saying that the food hub, established by the Sanwo-Olu administration, was one of the direct answers to the question of food insecurity and sustainability plaguing the country.
According to her, the middle-level food hub cited in Idi-Oro, Mushin, slated to be commissioned on Sunday, is confirmation of the state government’s solution and strategy that harnesses its comparative advantage as a market-state and caters to the key stumbling blocks affecting food security – market information, intermediary integration and contractual certainty.
The commissioner, while noting that Nigeria’s markets were plagued by poor integration, in the face of growing food demands from a burgeoning population, added that poor integration had a major effect on both farmer incomes and on food security, given the inability of markets to efficiently move food from surplus to deficit regions, hence the need for food systems transformation as exemplified by Lagos State Government’s middle-level agro hub.
“Given the inability of markets to efficiently move food from surplus to deficit regions, poor integration has a major effect on both farmer incomes and on food security, hence the need for food systems transformation as exemplified by Lagos State Government’s middle-level agro hub.
“The launch of a new way of food distribution in Lagos with the commissioning of the middle-level food agro-hub will see to the tackling of problems associated with post-harvest losses, inflation, carbon footprint and traffic congestion,” Olusanya said.
“The middle-level food agro hub is located in the heart of Mushin, Idi-Oro, with the modern facility sitting on 6,400 square meters of land, has adequate parking (3,017sqm) space to accommodate trailers and vehicles, and has centralised wet and dry storage areas for bulk buying,” she added.
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