Lagos plans to manage agricultural wastes

The Lagos State Government on Friday said that it was planning a coordinated efforts to effectively manage agricultural wastes from its rural communities.

Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Community Development and Communications, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

Bamigbetan said that the existing waste disposing system in the rural areas was bad and pose health hazard to people in the communities.

According to him, the state government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, would support community agriculture and help to coordinate the disposal of wastes generated from agricultural activities.

“Communities that are practicing home agriculture have been in existence for a long time.

“On a street you can have about ten people practicing fishing and poultry farming in a communal manner.

“Liquid and solid wastes are generated from such farms and are often released into the environment thereby making the community unhygienic.

“What that means is that such wastes can endanger the health of the rural dwellers,’’ Bamigbetan said.

He also disclosed that many farmers in the state were being registered to be able to benefit from the government agricultural support programmes.

According to him, the state Ministry of Agriculture will work closely with farmers, especially those in poultry section, to keep production figures with a view to tract productivity of the state agriculture sector.

Bamigbetan noted that the state has invested a lot in the poultry section to be able to lead other states in production of eggs.

He expressed the hope that the effort would stem the importation of eggs and other poultry products from neighbouring countries.