Public Servants should work directly with the public to provide solutions to challenges facing farmers and facilitate strategies to access single-digit credit facilities, provide rural infrastructures that would support agricultural production and ensure food security.
Ogun State Head of Service (HoS), Mr. Kolawole Fagbohun, made this known while delivering a keynote address at a day retreat, with the theme, “Achieving Agriculture and Food Security in Ogun State: The Place of Public Servants”, organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security for the management staff of the Ministry, at Ijebu-Ode.
Mr. Fagbohun described the public service as the engine room of any administration, saying the administration had equipped Civil and Public Servants through training, seminars and symposia, among others, in order to be responsive to policy pronouncements of political leaders, interpret them and create concrete and tangible values for increased productivity.
He noted that the issue of food security was a global concern, in terms of food availability and utilisation, as individuals derived sufficient energy and nutrients from good feeding practices.
Mr. Fagbohun, who reiterated that the Prince Dapo Abiodun’s administration was people-focused and growth-oriented, which enabled it to have agricultural development as one of the key pillars of development of the state, said government, through various initiatives and Public-Private Partnerships was committed to boosting the agriculture sector, urging participants to implement the administration’s developmental policies and strive to ensure its success.
Remarking, Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Hon. Bolu Owotomo, explained that the retreat was to brainstorm on the best ways in achieving food security through increase in food production, effective agricultural value-chain, access to inputs for the farmers and bringing youth and women into agriculture, among other things.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr. Samuel Adeogun, said agriculture, as an important pillar of ISEYA agenda in the state, must be achieved, adding that it was expedient to intimate management staff with what was expected of them, while Key Indicator Performance needed to achieve food security and food sufficiency would be discussed by speakers during the retreat.
