Provide Additional Support for Farmers Ahead of Next Planting Season to Ensure Food Security in Oyo — Sanjo Adedoyin

The Majority Leader of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Sanjo Adedoyin, has advocated additional support for farmers ahead of the next planting season to ensure food security in Oyo State, noting that agriculture is the foundation of human existence, essential for survival, economic stability, and environmental health.

Moving a motion on Wednesday on the need for the executive arm of government to provide additional support for farmers in preparation for the rainy season, Adedoyin stated that agriculture provides the daily food supply to combat hunger, ensures raw materials for industries, and remains a major employer of labour that drives rural development and environmental sustainability. 

He added that agriculture is the backbone of the economic system and its contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth cannot be overemphasized.

He noted that Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2), which seeks to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture, recognizes the importance of supporting sustainable agriculture by empowering smallholder farmers, ending rural poverty, ensuring healthy lifestyles, and tackling climate change. These align with the 17 SDGs in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is crucial as the world population grows.

The Agenda, according to him, is aimed at increasing sustainable agricultural production, improving the food supply chain, and ensuring everyone has access to food through improved yields via sustainable agricultural techniques, better water irrigation and storage technologies, and easy access to agricultural funds that can contribute to improved food security globally.

Stressing that Oyo State, under the visionary leadership of Governor Seyi Makinde, has consistently recorded landmark achievements in agriculture through strategic programmes and initiatives to boost food security, empower farmers, and modernize the agricultural sector, the lawmaker cited the 50% tractorisation subsidy programme that benefited about 6,103 farmers in 2025 by reducing the burden of mechanized farming costs and making modern farming practices more accessible to local farmers.

He added that over one thousand (1,000) fish farmers received three thousand (3,000) bags of 15kg fish feed three bags each, free of charge to boost fish production in the state.

He further noted that the empowerment of farmers with farm inputs such as cassava stems, hybrid premier maize seed, knapsack sprayers, herbicides and maize grain; the recruitment of 161 new Agricultural Extension Officers; the construction of about 68km of rural roads under the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP) supported by the World Bank and Agence Française de Développement (AFD); and the provision of agricultural credit through the Agricultural Credit Corporation of Oyo State (ACCOS) are efforts geared towards achieving food security and positioning agriculture as a driver of economic growth.

According to the lawmaker, considering the importance of agriculture in ensuring food security and economic growth, farmers still need subsidized quality seedlings, pest management support, fertilizers, accessible credit facilities, effective and efficient technical extension services, and market access through off-taker programmes to ensure high yields and profitability in the coming growing season.

He said: “Observes that for the impending planting season, there is need for timely preparation to support farmers and boost food production this rainy season. Agricultural cultivation requires adequate preparation by government to provide subsidised fertilizers, quality certified disease-resistant seedlings, enhanced extension services for farmers’ training, and offer agricultural loans and grants to real farmers as palliatives and as encouragement for people to return to farming. 

“Concerned that government interventions and programmes need to be put in place for farmers to promote sustainable agriculture practices, reduce post-harvest losses and increase food production, promote sustainable soil management, expand agroforestry — which would help mitigate the impact of climate change — and strengthen crop breeding, seed production and commercial seed expansion.”

The House therefore resolved that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA), should:

– Organize training for local farmers through agricultural extension services on best practices, climate-smart techniques, improved seeds, fertilizers and technologies to improve yields and reduce post-harvest losses;

Collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture on the National Agricultural Growth Scheme – Agro-Pocket (NAGS-AP) and the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) to boost agricultural output and reduce post-harvest losses.

The House also urged the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Tree Crops Unit to:

– Provide high-quality seedlings and subsidized fertilizers to farmers and create market access through off-taker programmes; Provide training on pest management and facilitate market access through off-taker programmes.

Furthermore, the House called on the Agricultural Credit Corporation of Oyo State (ACCOS) to: Extend loan access to more smallholder farmers, reduce processing time, and create group lending initiatives through cooperatives to ease access to loans; Introduce single-digit interest agricultural loans with moratoriums aligned to crop gestation periods for beneficiaries of the next planting season; Collaborate with the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Investment and Cooperatives to register and strengthen farmers’ cooperative societies as channels for lending initiatives; Establish a State Farm Input Monitoring Committee comprising representatives of farmers’ associations, OYSADA, and ACCOS to ensure timely and transparent distribution of subsidized inputs before planting season commences, among others.