The Lagos State Government said N1,049bn was used to subsidise LAKE Rice from December 2016 till date in order to sustain food sufficiency and food security in the state.
The Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Oluwatoyin Suarau, said this on Thursday while giving the scorecard of the Ministry of Agriculture in the last one year in Ikeja.
He noted that LAKE Rice which is being sold for N12, 000 per bag of 50 kilogrammes, has helped crashed the skyrocketing price of rice in the country.
He said, “the state government has subsidised LAKE Rice under the period under review with N1,049,140,395. This is targeted towards ensuring food sustainability making Lake Rice a national brand.
“The subsidy includes cost of transport, bagging and difference in cost price of the rice from other brands. A total of 150 marketers and other ancillary service providers have been empowered through the sales of LAKE Rice.”
The commissioner said the government had been working to establish a 32-tonne-per-hour rice mill, explaining that such was targeted at enhancing food security and creating employment in the state.
“It is estimated that the partnership would facilitate the creation of 274,000 jobs across the agriculture value chain, and will also bring about the cultivation of 32,000 hectares of farm-land to produce rice paddy, equating to an estimated 130 million kg of processed rice per year which is an equivalent of 2.6 milion 50kg bags of rice,” he said.
Suarau, who stated that the government had embarked on agricultural policies and programmes aimed at enhancing food security in the stated, added that the introduction of programmes in vegetable farming, poultry, cassava farming and various forms of agro- processing programmes were parts of deliberate efforts to encourage youths to go into
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