The Lagos State Government has reiterated its irrevocable commitment to driving youth inclusive policies, programs and projects in agriculture, regarding it as the way to ensuring food security whilst combating the twin challenge of unemployment and climate change.
Agriculture is the backbone many economies, averaging 25% or more of GDP in several developing countries and representing a prime opportunity to employ the youth. Considering the ageing population of food producers in the country, with the average age stemmed at 60+, it behoves on the government to drive inclusive strategies that engage the target group in agricultural food production. Lagos is not left behind in this drive, and as such initiated programmes targeted at youth participation in the sector through its Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems to mitigate some of the challenges identified as preventing the youth from fully engaging in agriculture – most notably lack of financing, land, markets and training.
Some of the programmes initiated by the LThe administration of Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu conceptualised the establishment of the Lagos Agripreneurship Programme (L.A.P.) in year 2020 as a social intervention programme aimed at exposing the youth to agriculture via training utlilizing modern agricultural techniques and practices towards job and wealth creation. The programme aims to train 15,000 youth across four value chains namely poultry, aquaculture, vegetable and piggery within the next 5 years.
The L.A.P programme is modelled after Israel’s Arava International center for Agriculture training (AICAT) programme, with the fundamental principle of learning by doing. The winning combination of practical training on an advanced and modern farm, theoretical studies, and community life provides the participants a unique and rich experience
The Programme is a four-month training programme that involves one-month intensive on-site demonstration training at the Lagos State Agricultural Training Institute in Araga – Epe (where particpants are trained, accommodated, fed, provided with training materials and safety kits for free by the State government), and a three-month internship phase with select agro-allied companies/farms. Since inception of this programme in 2020, a total number of 3,000 participants have been trained.
The programme is implemented in three phases namely training, internship/ mentorship and linkage to sources of finance.
Phase 1 (Training)
The training phase involves both practical and theory at 70:30 ratio respectively.
Phase 2 (Internship & Mentorship)
The L.A.P internship and mentorship phase is designed to expose trained participants to the real economics of agriculture and improve their knowledge in modern technologies for increased yields and profitability. Participants are attached to private commercial farms and other agribusiness concerns that are very close to their places of abode to acquire hands- on experience. This phase runs for three months and is implemented in collaboration with the private sector.
Phase 3 (Linkage with Financial Institutions):
This phase is for participants that have successfully completed phases 1 and 2 of Lagos Agripreneurship Programme (LAP) and is implemented in conjunction with NIRSAL Microfinance bank (CBN). Participants are expected to register with the CBN approved Enterprise Development Institute (EDI) with the sum of N10,000 (Ten Thousand naira only) to attend a 3- day training on finance/business development as part of the requirements for financial loan application.
In its bid to reduce the burden on participants and encourage follow-through of the programme, the Lagos State Government pays the mandated registration fees (N10,000) for the EDI training – the fee for all 2,200 participants that have gone through the L.A.P has been paid for.
Looking to the future
The long-term goal of the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems is to develop the Agricultural training institute, Araga at Epe to become a leading regional scientific research and development centre with the aim of cross-collaborating with private sector, development partners and nations, towards advancing sustainable methods of crop cultivation and animal husbandry, providing critical knowledge to the regional farming community, raising product quality and opening new markets.
This would boost the quality of training given to participants and open frontiers to student exchange programs, in furtherance to the objective of exposure to ground-breaking technologies that would be vital to food security in Nigeria.
