By Simpson Global Media News Desk
Farmers in Lagos State have called for improved access to farmland, finance, machinery, irrigation and transportation, saying targeted support could help the state substantially increase the amount of food produced within its borders.
The call, made by the Chairperson of the Ojo Farmers Community, Mayriam Ali, comes as Lagos continues to pursue a target of raising the proportion of food consumed in the state that is produced locally from about 25 per cent to 50 per cent.
Ali made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Sunday, September 27, 2026. She said farmers in Ojo were already producing significant quantities of vegetables despite constraints affecting access to production resources and markets.
The renewed appeal places the spotlight on a central challenge for Lagos agriculture: the state has one of Nigeria’s largest concentrations of consumers, but much of the food sold in its markets is produced outside its boundaries.
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said in August that more than 70 per cent of food consumed in Lagos was produced outside the state. He made the statement while commissioning a Mid-Level Agro-Produce Hub at Pen Cinema, Agege, where the government said it was working to strengthen food production, aggregation, storage, logistics and distribution.
For farmers in Ojo, the issue is therefore not simply whether Lagos can grow more food. It is also whether existing producers can obtain enough land, financing, equipment, water-management infrastructure and affordable transport to increase output and reliably connect farms with consumers.
Farmers Point to Short Vegetable Production Cycles
Ali said vegetables provide an immediate opportunity because many crops have relatively short production cycles.
According to her, some vegetables grown by farmers in Ojo can be harvested roughly three weeks after planting, allowing producers to move through several production cycles when adequate land, water, inputs and labour are available.
“Our vegetable is for three weeks. When you plant now, three weeks, you are ready to harvest,” she said, arguing that faster crop turnover could make increased production achievable if government agencies address the practical difficulties confronting farmers.
The short cycle of leafy vegetables is important in a city where demand for fresh produce is continuous. Unlike crops that require several months before harvest, fast-growing vegetables can respond relatively quickly to improved production conditions.
That does not mean that production can automatically double. Farmers still require suitable land, reliable water, seeds and other inputs, labour, access to markets and a transportation system capable of moving highly perishable produce before it loses quality.
Ali's argument is that the production potential already exists and that targeted interventions could allow farmers to capture more of the market currently supplied by food transported into Lagos.
She said vegetables were among the agricultural commodities that Lagos could produce in larger quantities for both domestic consumption and export.
Ali also said farmers operating around the Lagos State University area and military barracks were already producing vegetables that could contribute more to food supplies within the state.
She further claimed that a large proportion of vegetables coming from Ojo was being sent outside the country. That figure is an assertion by the farmers' representative and was not independently quantified in the NAN report.
Lagos Wants to Increase Local Production
The farmers' appeal comes against the background of a state government strategy aimed at increasing the share of food produced locally.
Lagos authorities have publicly set a target of increasing local food production from approximately 25 per cent of consumption to 50 per cent.
The target has been discussed across several agricultural initiatives, including poultry, aquaculture, fresh-food markets and food-distribution infrastructure. In August, the Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Systems, Abisola Olusanya, said poultry was among the subsectors with potential to support the state's food-security objectives.
The state has also been expanding infrastructure intended to improve the movement of agricultural commodities.
On August 12, the government commissioned the Mid-Level Agro-Produce Hub at Pen Cinema, Agege. The facility was described as the third operational hub in a developing network, following facilities in Mushin and Abijo.
The Agege facility was designed to bring farmers, aggregators, wholesalers, retailers and other participants in the food chain into a more organised distribution environment.
According to reports on the commissioning, the hub covers about 7,000 square metres, with a trading floor capable of accommodating between 350 and 400 vendors. It also includes dry and cold storage facilities intended to improve handling and preservation of food.
The infrastructure is part of a broader attempt to address problems that begin after crops leave the farm.
However, farmers in Ojo are drawing attention to an issue that precedes distribution: the ability to produce enough crops in the first place.
Production Must Keep Pace With Distribution
Food hubs, warehouses and markets can improve the efficiency of the food chain, but their effectiveness depends on a dependable supply of agricultural commodities.
The Ojo farmers' position is that investment in market infrastructure needs to be accompanied by investment in farms.
A modern market cannot compensate indefinitely for inadequate production. If farmers cannot obtain sufficient land or afford the inputs required to cultivate it, food-distribution infrastructure may improve the movement of existing supplies without fundamentally changing the volume produced within Lagos.
This is why Ali called for government officials responsible for agricultural programmes to visit farms regularly and identify problems directly.
She argued that government support should be based on conditions observed on farms rather than relying exclusively on broad programmes that may not address the specific constraints faced by individual farming communities.
Her proposal also included assistance that farmers could repay rather than relying exclusively on grants.
Under such an approach, support could be linked to specific farm projects, with equipment or financing provided for identifiable production needs and monitored to determine how the resources are used.
The principle would be to connect agricultural assistance with productive activity and repayment capacity.
Such a system, if properly designed and administered, could allow limited public resources to support more than one production cycle over time. It would also require transparent eligibility criteria, realistic repayment arrangements and monitoring to avoid placing farmers under unsustainable financial pressure.
Land Remains a Major Constraint
Access to land is one of the most important issues raised by the Ojo farmers.
Lagos is a densely developed state where residential, commercial, industrial, transport and infrastructure demands compete with agricultural land.
For farmers operating close to the metropolitan area, agricultural land has an additional economic value because it is close to one of the country's largest consumer markets.
That proximity is an advantage for fresh vegetables, but it can also make farmland vulnerable to competing land uses.
The geography of Ojo illustrates the complexity.
An academic study of urban vegetable farming in Ojo found that agricultural activity exists alongside a highly urbanised environment. The study identified areas including Iyana-Iba, Agboroko, the Lagos State University area and Ojo Cantonment as locations where urban agriculture takes place.
Another study examining vegetable production in Ojo found that many farmers operated on relatively small holdings. Its survey of 106 vegetable farmers found that 59.4 per cent of respondents were women and that half hired labour.
These findings are from earlier research and should not be treated as a current census of farmers in Ojo. They nevertheless provide background for understanding the structure of vegetable farming in the area.
Small plots can be productive, especially for intensive vegetable cultivation, but they can also make farmers more vulnerable to rising land costs, flooding, input-price increases and disruptions to production.
Where farmers do not have secure or predictable access to farmland, long-term investments such as irrigation systems, soil improvement, drainage or permanent farm infrastructure can become more difficult.
For that reason, any attempt to increase agricultural production inside Lagos will have to address not only how much land is available, but also whether farmers can access it with enough security to justify investment.
Finance Is Another Link in the Chain
Ali also identified finance as a major requirement.
Agriculture is a business in which expenditure often occurs before revenue. Farmers must acquire land, seeds, fertiliser or other inputs, pay labour and transportation costs, maintain equipment and absorb production risks before selling their harvest.
Vegetable farmers face an additional challenge because their crops are perishable.
If a farmer lacks sufficient working capital, the producer may be forced to sell quickly after harvest, potentially reducing bargaining power. If transport is unavailable or markets are distant, the financial consequences can become greater.
This is one reason why the farmers' request for finance is closely connected to their request for transportation and market access.
Credit that enables a farmer to increase production but does not provide a viable route to market may not deliver the expected result.
Similarly, a market facility may not solve the problem if farmers cannot finance the inputs required to produce enough commodities for the facility to handle.
An integrated approach therefore matters.
Farm finance, agricultural extension, irrigation, mechanisation, storage and transportation operate as connected parts of the production system.
Transportation Can Determine Whether a Harvest Becomes Income
Ali specifically identified transportation as a major obstacle.
She said farmers sometimes have produce ready for sale but struggle to move it from farms to markets because of high transport costs. She also called for arrangements that could make it easier to move agricultural produce to airports and other markets, particularly for farmers seeking export opportunities.
The transportation problem is particularly significant for vegetables.
A sack of a non-perishable commodity can withstand longer periods in transit than freshly harvested leafy vegetables. Delays can reduce quality and market value.
This means that the distance between a farm and a market is not measured only in kilometres. It can also be measured in time, road conditions, fuel costs, vehicle availability and handling practices.
For Lagos, improving farm-to-market transportation could therefore have consequences beyond farmers' incomes.
More efficient movement could reduce some of the costs built into the retail price of food.
It could also make local farmers more competitive against producers bringing commodities from distant states.
The governor's August comments underline the scale of the challenge. Sanwo-Olu said that food transported into Lagos travels through long and fragmented supply chains, exposing consumers to transportation costs, post-harvest losses, storage challenges, supply disruptions and price volatility.
Reducing those inefficiencies is one of the stated objectives of the state's food-hub strategy.
But local production could reduce the length of some supply chains even further if farmers close to Lagos can produce more of the food the city consumes.
Irrigation Could Extend Production Beyond Rainfall
Irrigation was another priority identified by the Ojo farmers.
Reliable access to water can allow farmers to maintain production when rainfall is insufficient or unpredictable.
For vegetable producers, this can be particularly important because their crops may require water at different stages of a short production cycle.
Irrigation can also allow farmers to plan production more deliberately rather than relying entirely on rainfall.
However, irrigation infrastructure must be appropriate to local conditions.
Pumping water from unsuitable sources, poor drainage or uncontrolled irrigation can create new problems, including waterlogging, soil degradation and crop disease.
The challenge for farmers is therefore not simply access to water but access to dependable and appropriately managed water systems.
This becomes especially important in parts of Lagos where rainfall, low-lying terrain and flooding can affect farms.
Earlier this year, Ojo farmers warned that flooding had submerged farmland, destroyed crops and disrupted harvesting and replanting. Ali at the time described flooding as one of the biggest challenges confronting vegetable farmers in the area.
The flooding issue illustrates why agricultural investment in Lagos cannot be separated from environmental management.
A farmer may receive financing, improved seeds and machinery, but if a farm is repeatedly inundated, production can still fail.
Flood Risk Adds Another Layer of Uncertainty
The current call for increased production therefore comes after a difficult period for some vegetable farmers.
Earlier reports from Lagos documented losses associated with prolonged rainfall and flooding in farming areas including Ojo.
The effects of flooding can extend beyond the immediate destruction of crops.
When mature crops are lost, farmers also lose the money already invested in land preparation, labour, inputs and other farm operations.
Replanting requires additional expenditure and time.
At the market level, a reduction in supply can place upward pressure on prices if demand remains unchanged.
That relationship was highlighted in July when Ojo farmers warned that flooding-related crop losses could contribute to higher prices for vegetables including ugu, spinach, spring onions, oregano and waterleaf.
The experience reinforces the need for agricultural support to include drainage, flood management and climate-resilient production methods.
It also explains why farmers are asking for regular visits from government officials.
Farm-level assessments can identify whether the most urgent requirement in a particular community is finance, land, irrigation, drainage, machinery, roads or another intervention.
The Role of Mechanisation
Ali also listed machinery among the resources farmers need.
Mechanisation does not necessarily mean replacing human labour with large tractors across every farm.
For vegetable production, useful equipment can include irrigation pumps, small tillers, planting and harvesting tools, sprayers, transport equipment, washing and sorting equipment and other machinery suited to small and medium-sized holdings.
The appropriate scale matters.
A farmer cultivating a relatively small plot may not need to own a tractor but may benefit from an affordable machinery-hire service.
This model can allow several farmers to share the cost of equipment rather than requiring each producer to purchase and maintain expensive machinery.
Agricultural programmes can therefore have greater reach when machinery is provided through service centres, cooperatives or managed hiring arrangements, provided the systems are transparent and accessible.
The same principle can apply to irrigation pumps, storage equipment and transportation.
Post-Harvest Handling Remains Important
Increasing production is only one part of food security.
The next question is how much of what farmers harvest actually reaches consumers in good condition.
Research on vegetable farmers in Ojo has previously examined the use of post-harvest practices among producers.
A study involving 150 farmers reported that timely collection from the field and keeping harvested vegetables in shaded areas were among practices used by respondents. The study also found that a substantial majority harvested according to appropriate maturity indicators.
The research is not a current measurement of post-harvest losses in Ojo, but it demonstrates why handling is an important part of the vegetable value chain.
Leafy vegetables are especially sensitive to heat and delays.
This makes the state's investment in food hubs potentially relevant to farmers whose produce needs rapid movement from farms to organised markets.
The Agege hub, for example, includes storage facilities and a trading area intended to make food distribution more efficient.
For the farmers' production push to translate into stronger food security, however, the infrastructure must connect effectively with the farms where commodities originate.
From Farm to Market
The larger policy question is how Lagos can build a food system in which production and distribution develop together.
The state government has already framed food security as a system rather than simply a farming issue.
The August commissioning of the Agege hub was presented as part of a wider Food Systems Transformation Agenda involving production, aggregation, logistics, processing and distribution.
The government is also developing a Central Food Systems and Logistics Hub at Ketu-Ereyun in Epe, according to Voice of Nigeria and other reports. The facility is intended to serve as a major aggregation and logistics platform within the broader network.
Such infrastructure could become increasingly important if local production rises.
But the farmers' latest message is that the production side needs equal attention.
If farmers are expected to supply a larger share of Lagos's food, they need a production environment in which the economics of farming make sense.
That includes access to land at manageable cost, financing that reflects agricultural realities, appropriate machinery, reliable water, transport and predictable markets.
What Doubling Local Production Would Require
Moving from roughly 25 per cent to 50 per cent local production would represent a substantial increase in the share of Lagos food supplied by farmers within the state.
The target should therefore be understood as a system-wide objective rather than a simple instruction to farmers to plant more crops.
It would require expansion in productive capacity.
That could come through several channels: increasing yields on existing farmland, bringing additional suitable land into production, improving irrigation, reducing crop losses, strengthening livestock and aquaculture production, supporting urban and peri-urban farming, and improving links between farmers and consumers.
Each pathway carries different requirements.
For vegetables, improved irrigation and better farm-to-market transport may produce relatively rapid results because of short production cycles.
For livestock, poultry and aquaculture, producers may need feed, breeding stock, veterinary services, water, housing, technical training and access to finance.
For crops with longer growing periods, farmers may require longer financing periods and stronger risk-management systems.
The state's food strategy therefore has to accommodate different agricultural value chains rather than treating all farmers as if they face the same constraints.
Farmers Want Support That Produces Results
Ali's request for repayable assistance also points to a broader debate over agricultural support.
Farmers need public intervention where market failures prevent viable businesses from accessing finance, infrastructure or technology.
At the same time, agricultural programmes need mechanisms that demonstrate whether support is producing measurable results.
Equipment can be supplied, but it must remain functional.
Loans can be disbursed, but repayment systems must reflect seasonal farm income.
Training can be organised, but farmers need access to the inputs and markets required to apply what they learn.
Infrastructure can be constructed, but farmers must be able to reach it.
These considerations are particularly important in Lagos, where agricultural land is under pressure and farmers operate within a rapidly urbanising environment.
The closer agricultural production is to the market, the greater the potential benefit of shortening supply chains. But the cost of land and infrastructure can also rise.
Women and Smallholder Farmers Matter
Available research also shows that women play a significant role in vegetable production in Ojo.
The 2022 study of 106 vegetable farmers found that women represented 59.4 per cent of respondents.
A separate study of 150 leafy-vegetable farmers in Ojo reported that 84.7 per cent of respondents were women. The two studies used different samples and methodologies, so their percentages should not be combined or interpreted as a current population estimate.
Nevertheless, both studies point to the importance of women in the local vegetable economy.
Agricultural financing, land-access policies, extension services and equipment programmes therefore have implications for women's economic participation.
If support programmes are difficult to access because of collateral requirements, land-tenure arrangements or administrative barriers, some farmers may remain excluded even when public funding is available.
Designing programmes around actual farm conditions could help identify such barriers.
A Question of Food Resilience
For Lagos, increasing local agricultural production is also a question of resilience.
A state that depends heavily on food arriving from outside its borders is exposed to disruptions along roads and other supply routes.
Problems in producing regions, transport corridors, weather conditions, fuel costs or market disruptions can all affect the availability and price of food entering Lagos.
Local production cannot eliminate those risks.
Lagos will continue to depend on food from other parts of Nigeria and international markets for many commodities.
But a stronger internal agricultural base could provide an additional layer of supply, particularly for fresh vegetables and other commodities that can be produced close to consumers.
That is the significance of the Ojo farmers' argument.
They are not suggesting that Lagos can produce every food item consumed by its millions of residents.
Rather, they are pointing to agricultural activities already taking place within the state and arguing that greater support could allow those activities to supply a larger share of local demand.
Linking Ojo to the Wider Lagos Food Economy
Ojo's location gives its farmers a potentially important role in the wider food economy.
The area is close to major population centres and markets, while vegetable production has long been part of its urban and peri-urban landscape.
Earlier research has identified several vegetable-growing locations in the area, including Iyana-Iba, Agboroko and areas around the Lagos State University and Ojo Cantonment.
The challenge is to ensure that farming remains economically viable as surrounding urban development expands.
This requires policy that recognises farmland not merely as unused space awaiting another development but as part of the state's food infrastructure.
Where agricultural land is strategically important, planning decisions can take food production into account alongside housing, transport and industrial needs.
For farmers, predictable access to land can make the difference between a temporary production activity and a sustainable agricultural enterprise.
What Happens Next
The immediate next step will be whether the issues raised by the Ojo Farmers Community translate into specific interventions.
The farmers have identified five broad areas: land, finance, machinery, irrigation and transportation.
Each requires different government and private-sector responses.
Land policy could involve improving farmers' access to suitable plots and providing greater security where agricultural use is planned.
Finance could involve credit products adapted to short-cycle crops and seasonal cash flow rather than conventional lending structures designed for salaried borrowers.
Machinery could be made available through shared-service or hire schemes.
Irrigation investment could focus on efficient water systems and appropriate drainage.
Transportation improvements could include farm access roads, aggregation points, scheduled produce transport and better links to major markets.
The state's expanding food-hub network could provide an important downstream connection if these production-side measures are implemented.
A Larger Test for Lagos Agriculture
The latest call from Ojo farmers comes at a time when Lagos is attempting to rethink its relationship with agriculture.
The state is simultaneously a huge food market, a densely populated urban centre and a producer of selected agricultural commodities.
Those characteristics create both an opportunity and a constraint.
The opportunity lies in the enormous market available to farmers located within or close to Lagos.
The constraint is that land, water, transport and infrastructure are competing with many other demands.
The state government's 50 per cent local-production target therefore depends on whether those competing pressures can be managed while making agriculture sufficiently productive and profitable for farmers.
The August commissioning of the Agege hub demonstrated an effort to address the distribution side of the equation. The latest Ojo farmers' appeal shifts attention back toward production.
Together, the two developments highlight the same underlying issue: food security depends on the entire chain working.
Farmers must be able to produce.
Produce must be able to leave farms.
Markets must be able to receive it.
Storage and handling must protect it.
Transport must move it efficiently.
And consumers must ultimately be able to afford it.
The Production Opportunity
For vegetable farmers, the potential may be particularly immediate.
Ali's description of a roughly three-week production cycle suggests that, under suitable conditions, additional support could translate into increased harvests relatively quickly.
But the key phrase is “under suitable conditions.”
Those conditions include land that can be cultivated safely, sufficient water, affordable inputs, labour, functioning equipment, manageable transport costs and reliable access to buyers.
Flooding also has to be addressed, particularly in low-lying farming areas.
If those constraints are tackled together, the result could be more consistent production and stronger connections between Lagos farmers and the state's enormous consumer market.
The farmers' request is therefore not simply for more government funding.
It is a request for the infrastructure and operating environment required to turn agricultural capacity into a dependable food supply.
Beyond a Single Farming Community
The issues raised in Ojo are also relevant to other farming communities across Lagos.
Farmers in Epe, Ikorodu, Badagry, Imota and other areas contribute to the state's agricultural economy, while different communities face different combinations of land, water, transport and market challenges.
A statewide agricultural strategy consequently needs local assessments rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
What works for vegetable farmers in Ojo may not be appropriate for poultry producers in another part of Lagos.
Likewise, an irrigation solution suitable for one crop or location may not work elsewhere.
This reinforces Ali's call for agricultural officials to visit farms and identify specific problems.
It also places emphasis on extension services, which can connect farmers with technical advice, government programmes, improved practices and information about markets.
Food Security and Farmer Income Are Connected
Ultimately, Lagos's food-production ambitions depend on farmers being able to earn viable incomes.
Food security policies that increase production without ensuring that farmers can recover their costs may not remain sustainable.
Farmers who repeatedly lose money because of flooding, high transport costs, inadequate storage or lack of affordable credit may reduce production or leave agriculture altogether.
Conversely, farmers who can reliably sell profitable harvests have an economic incentive to reinvest.
That reinvestment can support better seeds, irrigation, equipment, labour and farm management.
The cycle can then become self-reinforcing.
This is why the Ojo farmers' call for repayable assistance is significant.
Their proposal suggests that support should be structured around productive activities capable of generating revenue, while still recognising the risks inherent in agriculture.
A Measure of the 50 Per Cent Target
The 50 per cent target will ultimately be measured not by the number of agricultural projects announced but by the quantity and value of food actually produced, moved through markets and consumed in Lagos.
It will also be important to distinguish between different food categories.
Some commodities can be produced extensively within Lagos, while others will continue to depend heavily on supply from other parts of Nigeria or abroad.
A rise in local vegetable production, for example, would not mean Lagos had become self-sufficient in grains, livestock feed or every other major food commodity.
The state's strategy therefore needs to track specific value chains and identify where local production can realistically make the greatest contribution.
The farmers' focus on vegetables is one example of such a value-chain approach.
Conclusion
Lagos farmers, particularly those in Ojo, say the state has an opportunity to increase local food production if the practical constraints facing producers are addressed.
Their message is straightforward: access to land, finance, machinery, irrigation and transportation could enable farmers to expand production and supply a greater share of the food consumed within Lagos.
The call comes as the state pursues a target of increasing local food production from about 25 per cent to 50 per cent, while government investment is also being directed toward food hubs and logistics infrastructure.
Ojo's vegetable farmers argue that the potential already exists.
Their farms operate close to one of Nigeria's largest consumer markets, and some vegetables can be harvested within a relatively short period.
But the same farmers have also experienced flooding, high transport costs, limited access to finance and other production challenges.
The response will determine whether the state's food-security ambitions can move from infrastructure and targets to sustained increases in farm output.
For Lagos, the task is ultimately broader than producing more food.
It is about creating a food system in which farmers can access productive resources, harvest successfully, move produce efficiently, reduce losses and earn enough from agriculture to keep investing in production.
If those links are strengthened together, local farmers could play a larger role in supplying Lagos.
For now, the Ojo Farmers Community is asking government and agricultural agencies to move closer to the farms, understand the constraints directly and design support around the realities producers face.
The coming months will show how far that call is translated into concrete measures—and whether increased support can help Lagos farmers convert their existing production capacity into a larger and more reliable contribution to the state's food supply.
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