The Lagos State Government has said it is repositioning the state’s food system to strengthen market structures, improve food distribution and create greater certainty for farmers and businesses across the agricultural value chain.
Speaking on the outlook for Lagos’ food security strategy, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Systems in Lagos State, Ms. Abisola Olusanya, said the government’s approach would provide farmers with greater confidence to invest by creating clearer links between production, quality standards, agreed quantities and market prices.
According to Olusanya, such arrangements would also make it easier for financial institutions to support farmers. With farmers having clearer visibility on who will buy their produce, the quantity required and the expected price, they can better determine their potential returns, while banks can assess the underlying commercial arrangements and provide financing.
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The strategy, she noted, also presents opportunities for young entrepreneurs beyond primary production. E-commerce businesses, for instance, can partner with retailers and bulk wholesalers at food hubs to facilitate food redistribution, order-taking and home delivery. Logistics companies can work with certified aggregators to move food from producing states such as Kano to Lagos, while cold-chain businesses can invest in storage solutions at aggregation points.
She said the opportunities extend across virtually every segment of the agricultural value chain, including aggregation, logistics, storage, distribution and retail, creating multiple entry points for entrepreneurs and investors.
On what success would look like over the next three to five years, Olusanya said Lagos would focus on becoming a more efficient food market and distribution hub rather than attempting to compete with other states in every area of agricultural production.
She explained that Lagos must recognise its comparative advantage as a market city-state with a large population, strong infrastructure and socioeconomic activity, describing it as Nigeria’s largest commercial centre. Rather than duplicating the production strengths of other states, Lagos would seek to strengthen the systems that connect farmers and food-producing regions to its large consumer market.
Olusanya said this approach would enable states with stronger comparative advantages in the production of grains, legumes, tubers and other commodities to increase output, while Lagos provides a more efficient channel for those products to reach consumers and markets.
She stressed, however, that Lagos would not abandon food production, noting that the state would continue investing in areas where it has demonstrated competitive strength.
“Lagos is also very good in livestock production, particularly in poultry and aquaculture,” she said, adding that piggery and vegetable and horticultural production would also remain important areas of focus.
The Commissioner noted that Lagos has some of the largest piggery estates in West Africa, reinforcing the state’s potential in livestock production. Aquaculture, poultry, piggery and vegetable production would therefore form key components of the state’s production strategy.
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For commodities where other parts of Nigeria have stronger production advantages, she said Lagos would continue to build partnerships with states, farmers, companies, cooperatives and agricultural clusters to ensure a reliable supply chain into the state.
The overall objective, Olusanya explained, is to strike a balance between increasing local production and reorganising the market system so that Lagos can strengthen food security while also creating economic opportunities for farmers, businesses, investors and other stakeholders across the agricultural value chain.
She said the strategy would ultimately seek to create a more coordinated food system in which producers can plan with greater certainty, businesses can invest with clearer market visibility and consumers can benefit from a more efficient and resilient supply chain.
