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To achieve food sovereignty, the federal government, through the National Agricultural Lands Development Authority (NALDA), has announced plans to convert underutilised forest reserves into farmlands.
NALDA explained that the initiative, known as the Green Hope Project, is expected to benefit at least 4,000 people, most of whom are farmers.
NALDA Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, Cornelius Adebayo, who addressed journalists at a press briefing yesterday in Abuja, explained that the project is already being implemented in Ogun State, Lagos State, the Federal Capital Territory and other locations.
“The Greenhouse Project is not solely green. It’s called the ‘Green Hope Project’. It is three-layered. You have the open field, greenhouses, normal regular greenhouses, and you have the high-tech, temperature-controlled, high-tech greenhouses.
“Right now, we started implementing the two layers – the open field, horticulture, and the normal greenhouses. We have two locations right now. One in Giri to service Abuja, and in Shagamu to service neighbours because you don’t have a lot of land, of course, in Lagos, but the population is there to consume these greenhouses. So, we are hoping to be able to service neighbours from Ogun State.
“In Lagos, we put up 30 greenhouses, and we are hoping to add an additional 50. In Abuja, we put up 20, and we are hoping to add an additional 60,” he said.
According to him, these greenhouses are also situated next to what he described as the open field.
“Now, the open field is the easiest way for us to be able to meet, close the gap. One thing we have been able to do is that we have about 38 locations across the country for the open field. Thirty-eight locations, and each location is a minimum of 500,” he said.
Adebayo also stressed that the target for the greenhouses is to engage women and make them major beneficiaries so they can sustainably run the businesses as a means of empowerment for themselves and their families.
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“The target is women, and the idea is to make sure that women are supported so that we can support the men also. I said we have 38, it is targeting about 4,000 beneficiaries in total, this first stage that we are at, and we are hoping to be able to replicate that in every federal constituency in the country.
“From that, we take it to the next level. Why is this? We believe that we need to decentralise production of vegetables. We need to reduce how we transport vegetables. Vegetables are something we eat fresh, and not something that spends days in transit.
“Every modern society, every modern city that we travel to, has greenhouses and supply systems that can feed the city. That is what gave birth to this project.”
Meanwhile, he announced a partnership with government organisations in vegetable production, noting that in the initial stage, the authority partnered with the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI) and the National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT).
“The Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute, ARMTI, and the National Horticultural Research Institute, NIHORT, which specialises in horticulture, are training the first set of beneficiaries of this project.
“NIHORT will give them the first set of inputs, so when they harvest, there will be an aggregator that collects a percentage of their harvest. The idea is to be able to supply the immediate environment first. After that, a percentage is collected and taken to secondary and tertiary markets so that we do not have wastage.
“We are talking about training by ARMTI. ARMTI has a partnership.
“We believe in partnerships. We don’t believe that anyone can do it alone. Partnerships from every angle. You can see we’ve brought in NIHORT. For our cocoa programme, we have brought in the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, CRIN, because we cannot do this work alone. Our own is to facilitate and make it easier.
“And any support you can get from a sister agency or a co-government agency, definitely we’ll be happy to take.”
