THE Federal Government has identified Ogun State as one of the key partners in the growth of fisheries in Nigeria.
Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, who made this assertion when he commissioned four projects built by his ministry in Eriwe, Ijebu-Ode, said Government was particularly interested in Ogun State because, “If agriculture succeeds in Ogun, agriculture has succeeded in Nigeria.”
The four projects, which were commissioned by the minister for the Eriwe fishing farm estate were a feed mill, cold room, fish market and the processing unit.
He said the projects were all intended to make the estate a real fish farming cluster where the farmers would fully appropriate all the advantages of fish farming value chain.
The Eriwe fish farms, reputed to be the biggest fish farm in Africa, has over 3,000 fish ponds scattered over an estimated 156 hectares of land with an average fish farming production turnover of about 2,500 metric tonnes annually and income generation of about N2 billion annually.
Lokpobiri eulogised the Eriwe people for their self-help efforts and commitment to consciously work themselves out of poverty.
The inauguration of the projects had in attendance members of the board of trustees of Ijebu Development Initiative on Poverty Reduction (IDIPR), board of directors, traditional rulers and members of the community.
The minister particularly appreciated the efforts of the Eriwe community in fish farming, which he noted, had assisted the Government to grow the fishery sector in Nigeria.
He revealed that when the present administration came to power, the local production of fish was only about 600,000 metric tonnes, but with the support of the likes of the Eriwe community, the figure had been increased to about 1.1 million metric tonnes, which represented almost 100 per cent increase.
According to Lokpobiri, there was still a lot to be done because the national demand was about 3.5 million metric tonnes and “we are producing only about 1.1 million metric tonnes, which means that we are only producing about one third of our national demand.”
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