‘We lack funds to enhance production at Imota farmers’ settlement’

Situated in Ikorodu, its geographical coordinates are 6° 40’ 0” North, 3° 40’ 0” East and it is one of the 37 local council development areas in Lagos State.As one of the communities in the ancient Ikorodu area, Imota is blessed with vast hectares of arable lands, making it one of the desired places for […]

Situated in Ikorodu, its geographical coordinates are 6° 40’ 0” North, 3° 40’ 0” East and it is one of the 37 local council development areas in Lagos State.
As one of the communities in the ancient Ikorodu area, Imota is blessed with vast hectares of arable lands, making it one of the desired places for agricultural activities in the state.
The farmers in Imota are into several aspects of agriculture, ranging from crops farming and animal husbandry which cut across snail farming, poultry production, piggery, grass cutter farming and others.
Some of these farmers are settlers at the farm estate who were farmers trained in 1973 by the federal government at the farm institute on two years course in agriculture.
Ten of them were settled at the farm estate in the Imota to aid their farming jobs and also make the country benefit from the training they had undergone.
One of the farmers is Mr. Olatunji Abiodun, who occupies apartment No 8 at the estate. He shared his experiences thus:  “We are settled farmers here and we came in since 1973 as settlers. We were trained at the farm institute on a two years course in agriculture between 1971 and 1972. After the training they graduated us and we were later settled here at Imota farms settlement estate as one of the four farm settlements in Lagos State.”
Olatunji who is into poultry production, cassava, fruits and vegetables production said lack of funds has been responsible for their inability to enhance their production.
He said shortage of funds has forced him to stop the poultry and concentrates on crops production, adding that the process of securing loan is cumbersome.