The Lagos Rice Mill at Imota has created more than 2,000 jobs, helped about 500 farmers and supported over 1,500 hectares of paddy farmland, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said on Friday at the World Food Day celebration in Lagos. The mill can process about 2.5 million 50-kilogram bags of rice annually and is central to the state's food security strategy.
Lagos, Nigeria's smallest state by landmass with over 22 million people, cannot achieve food security by simply expanding farmland, Sanwo-Olu said. Instead, the state is pursuing a resilient, inclusive and sustainable food system under its Five-Year Agricultural and Food Systems Roadmap. This includes a three-tier market structure with a central food security hub, mid-level produce hubs and last-mile distribution networks designed to reduce intermediaries and food waste.
The rice mill, commissioned in January 2023, is one of several agricultural projects. The Eko Agro Mechanisation Program, launched in February 2023, has given smallholder farmers access to machinery, with over 3,000 hectares cultivated and about 6,000 farmers benefiting. The Lagos Aquaculture Centre of Excellence at Igbonla will include a hatchery, feed mill and processing plant with annual capacities of about 50 million fingerlings, 2,000 tons of fish and 24,000 tons of aqua feed.
The Lagos Agripreneurship Program, launched in 2020, has trained over 4,400 youths and women, with more than 2,000 receiving assets and inputs. Through the Ounje Eko Farmers Subsidy Program, 5,000 farmers received a 25 percent subsidy on animal feed, fertilisers and tractor-hiring services in 2025, helping to stabilise egg prices.