19th December, 2019
The Lagos State Government says it has commenced a 3-week baseline survey for agriculture and participatory appraisal of farm estates and settlements in the State, the State Commissioner for Agriculture, Prince Gbolahan Lawal has disclosed.
According to Lawal, the main objective of the baseline survey is to obtain comprehensive information on the production of value chains, current production capacity, assessment and valuation of inputs and agricultural development programmes through systematic monitoring and evaluation.
The Commissioner pointed out that the survey was necessary in order to assess the potential impact of the 5-year road map for Agriculture in the State, stressing 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 5-year Agricultural Road Map for the State there is the need to carry out a baseline survey that would provide necessary information for the implementation of the initiative and serve as a benchmark for measuring the success of the 5-year road map in order for this initiative to be successful,” Lawal said.
He noted that the specific objectives of the survey are the need to provide basic socioeconomic indicators or gazette type of information on the Ministry of Agriculture programmes and initiatives, 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 explained that the main objective of the participatory appraisal, on the other hand, is to obtain a comprehensive information on the status quo of all farm estates and settlements in the State, their numbers, location, population of farmers within each estates/settlement, infrastructure developments, current production capacity, assessment and valuation of inputs through systematic monitoring and evaluation.
He added that the participatory appraisal would cover all established farm estates and settlements in the State, adding that the appraisal is necessary in order to obtain necessary information as well as collect socio-economic characteristics, demographic distribution, population census, management operation among other that would enable easy implementation of developmental projects.
“The participatory appraisal will provide a set of quantitative and qualitative data that would guide the implementation of rehabilitation exercise in all the farm estates and settlements. The information generated from the participants of the appraisal shall reflect to a large extent the farm family agricultural situation of the community, their challenges and provide a framework to ensure adequate and sustainable suitable solutions are put in place. The successful completion of this appraisal would expose investment opportunities thereby attracting investors that will drive the agricultural sector forward thereby ensuring sustainable food security and employment generation,” the Commissioner averred.
He stressed that participatory methodologies would be used in eliciting information from the respondents so as to ensure the sustainability of the process adding that efforts would be made to ensure a fair representation of women, youth and men in the coverage.