The NGO Heifer International will be partnering with two agro-based firms, Agric Topic Vegetable Seed and Captain Nigeria, to boost tomato production in the Dadi Louis community Iworo in Badagry Division of Lagos State.
The NGO’s Country Director, Rufus Idris, said the mission of the NGO was to end poverty, adding that the partnership would go a long way in supporting farmers on the Island: “We are here today to have an engagement, to interact with some of the tomato farmers because, in Nigeria, tomato is a key produce. We have farmers who are producing in large quantities, and they are struggling a lot in terms of access to the market for their products. They are struggling to access finance and also struggling to access reasonable water and do all-season farming.”
“We are here to understand their problems and challenges and start a process so that we can start mapping these farmers’ farm sizes and see how we can help to lift them out of poverty,” he said.
Idris said the bringing of the food processing company to the Island was to buy tomatoes directly from farmers and improve their livelihoods.
Source: guardian.ng