LAGOS BEGINS BASELINE SURVEY, PARTICIPATORY APPRAISAL OF AGRIC FARM ESTATES
The Lagos State Government has announced the commencement of a three-week baseline survey for agriculture and participatory appraisal of farm estates and settlements in the State.
A disclosure by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Prince Gbolahan Lawal revealed that 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.
Lawal pointed out that the survey was necessary in order to assess the potential impact of the five-year road map for Agriculture in the State, stressing that data would be collected from all the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas in the State.
“In line with the T.H.E.M.E.S Agenda and development of a five-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 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-impacts at regular intervals and to collect information on the number of active farmers in the State.
Explaining the objective of the participatory appraisal further, Lawal said another reason is to obtain comprehensive information on the status quo of all farm estates and settlements in the State, their numbers, location, the population of farmers within each estate/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, maintaining that the procedure is necessary for obtaining relevant information as well as collecting socioeconomic characteristics, demographic distribution, population census, management operations, among other things 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’s agricultural situation in the community, their challenges and provide a framework to ensure adequate and sustainable 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, assuring that efforts would be made to ensure a fair representation of women, youth and men in the coverage.
