IITA partners Ogun to boost food security, capacity development

In its strategic economic plan to improve and boost food security, capacity building and sustainable yield in agriculture, the Ogun State government has partnered with International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, for innovative solutions to develop agriculture in the state.

The duo signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), Thursday, at the conference centre, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan. The collaboration according to the MoU will see to IITA using its expertise in agricultural innovations to provide technical backstopping, establish demonstration farms and enterprise development at Odeda farm institute.

Also, IITA will provide technical innovations and support to farming and related activities carried out by various agricultural programmes in the state to ensure food security.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Ogun State, Dr Adeola Odedina, explained that the state is looking at making agriculture one of the mainstays of the economy, hence taking adequate steps to strategically partner experts in the field to increase yield.

“In planning for the agricultural sector in the state, we thought of low hanging fruits in stimulating the economy and when we looked around we found out that we do not only have low hanging fruits but already have them on the ground so we need to pick them and in doing this we developed an MoU that was approved by the governor and we visited IITA, an expert in agriculture innovation for discussion on a possible partnership to redefine agricultural yield.

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“Our governor is happy with the partnership with IITA in making this initiative a success and he is ready to give adequate support and investment to make the collaboration a reality.”

Odedina explained: “We have to work with an international brand like the IITA to achieve the level of standard production yield expected.

IITA had visited our facilities in Ogun State and we are happy they are glad about the level of arrangement they met on ground. Deputy Director-General, Partnership for Delivery, Mr Kenton Dashiell, in his remarks during the signing of the MoU commended the Ogun State Commissioner of Agriculture, Mr Odedina’s dynamic leadership strength to strategically drive the partnership project to make it a reality.

Dashiell who could not hide his appreciation for the level of effect invested by the commissioner and his team into the state’s agricultural project confessed that the MoU is the most detailed he has ever seen.

“I have been signing MoU but I must say this is the most detailed we have been involved in the anal of our signing of MoU.

The IITA is highly in support of the initiative and we will work within our capacity to give the state every expert support required to boost agricultural yield in the state.

Also in a brief remark, the Director, Country Engagement and Alignment, IITA, Mr Kwasi Ama-Krah, who gave an update on Ogun State and IITA plan said the level of coordination from both sides was highly commendable, adding that all area of importance to make the project a worthwhile from the Ogun State Ministry of Agriculture and the IITA Ibadan to make the ceremony a success.

“We visited Ogun State with the IITA team to ascertain the level of preparedness and we were happy with what we saw on the ground. We also visited the farm institute to confirm the state of things and the IITA team sent their report and we entered into discussion with the Ogun State team to go into action.”

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