Food Security: Fashola Launches Eko Farmers Mart

Wife of the Lagos State Governor, Mrs. Abimbola Fashola, has commissioned the Eko Farmers Mart built by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to curb incessant hike in the prices of food items often caused by middlemen.

The Eko Farmers Mart is built at the Lagos Government Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, southwest Nigeria.

Speaking at the commissioning, Fashola said the mart would not only guarantee reasonable prices of food commodities, it would also provide easy access to farm produce in the state.

She said enough attention is being given to the agricultural sector by the present administration in order to meet its target of poverty reduction, hunger eradication and food availability for the teeming populace.

She, however, pleaded with the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives and other stakeholders to be pro-active in the preservation of perishable farm produce and avoid wastages while also ensuring stability of prices of food items all year round.

Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, pledged that the initiative would be replicated in all the local government areas whereby farm produce would be supplied directly the farmers without going through middlemen.

According to him, this would give the farmers the opportunity to get competitive prices for their produce which will encourage them to produce more.

He further stressed that the high profit margin between the middlemen and the farmers contributes to the negative landing price of agricultural products, which consequently increases the market price of food items.

The commissioner added that government had provided an avenue to enhance the purchasing power of Lagosians and to encourage increase in production of farm produce by various farmers.