The Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, has emphasised the need to engage Agricultural Engineers to tackle the challenge of food insecurity in the nation.
Hamzat stated this during a courtesy visit by the National Chairman of the Nigerian Institution of Agricultural Engineers (NIAE), Prof. Folarin Alonge and members of the institution at Alausa, Ikeja on Wednesday.
Earlier reports reflect that Agriculture Engineers make the engineering designs and plans in an agricultural project, usually, they partner with agriculturists who are more proficient in farming and agricultural science.
The deputy governor said it would help develop more innovation that could allow the nation to boost her economy.
He noted that no nation could survive without a functional engineering system.
Hamzat stressed the importance of the nation producing what the citizens could eat and eat what they produced for the growth of the country.
“The President has made it clear that ‘as a people, we must ensure that we produce what we eat’.
“Without producing what we eat, it will be difficult to have food sustainability and security.
“As such, every state must now come up with whatever advantage they have to make sure that they are able to produce something,” he said.
Highlighting the achievements of the administration in Agriculture, the deputy governor said that the Eko Rice Mills at Imota, in its full capacity, will produce 2.5 million rice of 50kg in a year.
“This is big. However, the challenge is that the state occupies 0.34 per cent of the country’s landmass and, one third of it is water with 10 -11 percentage of the nation’s population in Lagos.”
He disclosed that plans were underway to construct the largest Agricultural hub where food items, animals and other livestock would be concentrated for easy transactions between the farmers and the traders.
He said: “There are going to be facilities that are capable of tracking animals brought to Lagos from different parts of the country, ostensibly to detect those that have diseases.
“Lagos is proud of turning the Imota Rice Mill into something that is productive and will be sustained over the years.
“Therefore, for the state to be able to do agriculture properly, there is a need for Agricultural Engineers because it is innovation and it is engineering that can bring about the change the nation wants.”
Earlier in his remarks, the NIAE National Chairman said the institution was ready to assist the state government in training and capacity building of agricultural engineers and experts employed by the state government to both national and international exposures.
According to the chairman, “As a nation with critical cross road challenges, the engineers, especially, the agricultural engineers are required to bring in some ingenuity and innovation into the development of the agricultural sector.”
He stated that most of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals being pursued in different countries of the world have something to do with engineering and with Africa Agenda 2063.
These aspirations also require engineering solutions and harnessing the potentials of Nigerian agriculture to the fullest.
