The Ekiti State Government has announced plans to engage over 200,000 farmers in commercial livestock farming and generate over 1.5 million indirect jobs through the World Bank-supported Livestock Productivity and Resilience Enhancement Project (L-PRES).
Speaking at the opening of a five-day Training Workshop on Productivity and Technology Adoption Survey in Ado Ekiti, the state’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Ebenezer Boluwade, said the initiative will “boost livestock productivity, improve resilience, and commercialise selected value chain initiatives,” including the formation of clusters across the state.
Represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Ebenezer Ojo, Mr. Boluwade highlighted four priority livestock value chains for the state: dairy/beef, sheep/goat, piggery, and poultry (broiler and egg production).
“The livestock sub-sector is wide and presents some promising production opportunities in our state.
“The L-PRES Project is supporting measures that will help livestock farmers and ancillary agribusinesses modernise agricultural practices and build resilience through improved innovation and good practices,” he added.
The L-PRES initiative is being implemented across 20 states in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. It is expected to directly benefit 1.43 million farmers nationwide—30% of whom will be women.
Olayinka Adedipe, the Ekiti L-PRES coordinator, said the project is already operational in all 16 local government areas of the state.
“In the project implementation manual, the entire country is targeting 1.4 million farmers. So, for Ekiti, we are looking at over 200,000 farmers to become commercial farmers,” he said.
“If we are able to empower 200,000 farmers, look at the indirect jobs that will be linked to that. For the indirect jobs, we are looking at over 1.5 million jobs,” he added.
Ogunloba James, speaking on behalf of the project’s lead consultant, Synergy Impact Consultant Limited, observed: “Attention has always been on crop production. This is the first time the country is shifting significant focus to livestock production.”
