By Olasunkanmi Akoni
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has approved the release of about N500 million loan facility for 100 youths who participated in the Agricultural Youth Empowerment Scheme (Agric-YES) aimed at boosting food production in the state.

Meanwhile, the state government has expressed concerns about the impact of climate change on crop and animal production in the state, saying global warning had negatively affected rice production by 40 percent between 2009 and 2010.

Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Yakub Basorun revealed this at a forum with Newsmen at the state secretariat, a situation he said “has been a source of concerns”.

According to Basorun, the administration of Governor Fashola (SAN) had empowered 100 youths who participated in the Agric-YES, saying about N500 million loan facility would soon be granted to the beneficiaries to boost food production in the state.

He said N500 million credit facility for the last batch of participants in the programme “was ready. We will ensure that people will not go to the farm and later run away. This scheme is aimed bringing the interest of youths in agriculture. Every six months, we intend to graduate 100 youths who will be empowered to practice agriculture.

“We are also planning to embark on estate initiative for agricultural programme this year. We are discouraging individual allocation of land and encouraging estates. We have a fish farm estate in Ikorodu and we are looking at establishing a poultry estate where farmers can invest,” he stated.

Commenting on rice production, Basorun said it has specifically suffered much setback as a result of unceasing rainfall and flood, which the permanent secretary attributed about 40 percent decline in the production.

He said the state “witnessed too much flooding in 2010 which affected rice production. There was lots of warming which went on in the northern hemisphere and brought in lots of moisture in our land”.

But Basorun acknowledged that the rice production in the state had improved from 0.5 ton, which the permanent secretary said, the state used to produce before 2007 to a production of about 400 tons in 2010.

He said: “We expect to yield 600 tons of paddy (raw rice) rice annually. When processed, this can come up to about 400 tons of processed rice annually. This is equivalent to 8, 000 bags of rice per annum.

“Before our Rice for job programme started, the yield on our land was 500kg per hectare. Now we reap two tons of rice per hectare and that was when we were producing on 200 hectares. But the impact of global warming has been enormous. In 2009, about 40 percent of rice planted was lost to draught”.

Basorun said the state government would target producing rice on 300 hectares of land this year as against the 200 hectares used last year, disclosing that the aim of the state government was to put in place ultra-modern rice factory before the end of the year.

He however unveiled the plan of the state government “to introduce technology adaptable to our environment to mitigate the impact of climate change. We have introduced machines and flood-resistant seeds to mitigate the effect of global warming. If we cannot increase production, we will not lose”.