By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF) has been applauded for supporting aquaculture and fish farmers in Lagos State.
Recently, the Lagos State Agricultural Development Authority (LSADA) held a two-week capacity building workshop on breeding, production, processing and marketing of catfish.
The annual project called Fingerlings to Fork was organised by LSADA in partnership with BATN Foundation.
The project, which is in its third cycle, has supported 600 smallholder fish farmers across all zones in Lagos State and also empowered three cooperatives with 250kg smoking kiln each.
Speaking at the training, the Commissioner for Agriculture in Lagos State, Mrs Abisola Olusanya, commended BATN Foundation for its involvement in the fish value chain of LSADA, notably through its annual partnership to drive sustainable agriculture development in the state.
The Commissioner, who was represented by the Project Manager at LSADA, Dr Olamilekan Pereira-Sheteolu, described the completion of the workshop as a huge achievement for the agency, appealing to other well-meaning members of the private sector to support the programme.
Speaking through the Director of External Services, Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs Ayoade Abiola Olatokunbo, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Hakeem Adeniji, said the collaboration between the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and the BATN Foundation is always a fruitful one, which has seen both parties working towards the same goal of ensuring food security, agricultural sustainability and women empowerment.
“Lagos State government produces only 20 per cent of its food demand, leaving 80 per cent to be imported from other states of the federation. The government is making concerted efforts to boost food production from 20 per cent to 40 per cent.
“As an aquatic state, the state is particularly interested in the fish subsector as it generates income for artisanal fishermen and has potential for business opportunities. This includes breeding of fingerlings and juveniles, processing and packaging of fish for exports, input supply, etc,” he added.
Speaking further, he expressed appreciation to BATN Foundation for initiating the intervention which he said is expected to empower farmers and beneficiaries of the training with a view to improving their production.
Representing the General Manager of BATN Foundation, Ololade Johnson-Agiri, the Project Manager, Dare Odusanya, in his address, said that the partnership between LSADA and BATN Foundation is intended to ensure that smallholder farmers transition from subsistence to commercial farming, adding that the organisation believes in the wealth-creating opportunities in agriculture and is committed to promoting sustainable agribusiness development amongst smallholder farmers.
A significant feature of this year’s workshop was the participation of persons living with disability most of whom are hard of hearing.
Some of the beneficiaries of the workshop expressed delight about the training and particularly the new knowledge they acquired on catfish drying and smoking.
One of them, Mrs Cecilia Omoagbor, said that she was “glad to realize how economically viable catfish smoking is,” noting that, it is another stream of income in catfish farming, which is not time-consuming.
Another physically challenged beneficiary, Mr Oluseyi Moses, a farmer from Agbado Oke-Odo LCDA, Lagos, promised to share the knowledge acquired with youth farmers in his community.
Adedapo Adesanya