Lagos Begins Survey Of Farm Estates, Settlements

The Lagos State Government on Thursday said it had commenced a three-week baseline survey for agriculture and participatory appraisal of farm estate and settlements in the state.

Mr Gbolahan Lawal, the State Commissioner for Agriculture, said the objective of the baseline survey was to obtain comprehensive information on the production of value chains, current capacity and assessment and valuation of inputs.

Lawal said it would also obtain information on agriculture development programme through systematic monitoring and evaluation.

He said the survey was necessary in order to assess the potential impact of the five-year roadmap for agriculture, adding that data would be collected from all the 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas in the state.

“In line with the THEMES Agenda and development of a five-year agricultural roadmap for the state, there is the need to carry out a baseline survey that would provide necessary information for the implementation of the initiative.

“The survey will serve as a benchmark for measuring the success of the five-year roadmap in order for this initiative to be successful,” he said.

Lawal said the specific objectives of the survey were the need to provide basic socio-economic indicators or gazette type of information on the programmes of the ministry and initiatives.

He said it would help provide a framework for other surveys and information for planning, measure changes in simple indicators of project’s impacts at regular intervals and to collect information on the number of active farmers in the state.

The commissioner said the aim of the participatory appraisal, on the other hand, was to obtain comprehensive information on the status quo of all farm estates and settlements in the state.

He said the appraisal would obtain the numbers, location, population of farmers within each estates/settlement, infrastructure developments, current production capacity, assessment and valuation.

He added that the participatory appraisal would cover all established farm estates and settlements.

“The appraisal is necessary in order to obtain necessary information as well as collect socio economic characteristics, demographic distribution, population census, management operation, among others, that will enable easy implementation of developmental projects.

“The participatory appraisal will provide a set of quantitative and qualitative data that will guide the implementation of rehabilitation exercise in all the farm estates and settlements.

“The information generated from participants, shall reflect to a large extent, the farm family agricultural situation of the community, their challenges, provide a framework to ensure adequate and sustainable suitable solutions are put in place,” he said.

He said the successful completion of this appraisal would expose investment opportunities, thereby attracting investors that would drive the agricultural sector forward and ensure sustainable food security and employment generation.

The commissioner said participatory methodologies would be used in eliciting information from the respondents so as to ensure the sustainability of the process, as efforts would be made to ensure a fair representation of women, youth and men in the coverage.

(NAN)