Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola (SAN) has said that the state government through the Farmers Food Mart located in the State Secretariat, is creating the enterprise and opportunities inherent in farming.
Governor Fashola who was received by the Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Prince Gbolahan Lawal and Permanent Secretary, Dr Yakub Bashorun spoke with newsmen after inspecting the food items on display said as a government, the administration is leading by showing the way that if the people follow the track there are enormous opportunities.
According to the Governor, the establishment of the Farmers Food Mart is also part of the initiative to encourage people, farmers and those who are unemployed about the values of farming and the economic benefi ts from it.
"You will see now rural fi shermen and women and farmers bringing their items here and selling it and putting their money in their pocket or putting it in the nearest bank. To them business is favourable", he added.
The Governor explained that the government decided to create a Farmers Mart at Alausa given the sizeable population of the working class at Alausa, comprising of mothers, fathers and young people who can buy fresh food, fi sh, beef and other farm produced on offer like Garri, Rice straight from the farm.
"There are some value added, there are some Agro processing already going on as a result of what has been created. There is a ready market here, bring it and it will be bought and you will sell and that has happened since we opened this Mart".
"We have opened two more Marts and I think we are opening three more in other parts of Lagos, creating bulk sales outlet so that farmers produce gets to the market with minimum damage and loss as a result of storage needs".
The ultimate objective, the Governor explained is to foster enterprise and opportunities. "You have seen here also the frozen van that helps to keep all of the produce here, so we are trying to get to poor people, we are trying to get to middle working class people and we are also encouraging the young people to take to farming, trying to create enterprise and opportunities".
