 Welcome back to the breakfast and plus CV Africa. Let's look at the second conversation, the issue of urban farming in Lagos State has been called by authorities. Now, it's no longer news that Niger is facing a food security crisis that is compounded by COVID-19 and that's a global pandemic. It has an effect on the food value chain, including the security concerns in Nigeria. The pandemic already has significantly disrupted a lot of activities, including the value chain of food across the country and the issue of bandits and banditry across the entire nation. But the Lagos State government in a bid to profit solution has called on Lagosians to embrace urban farming as a way to ensure food sufficiency that might trickle down to other parts of the country. But with the challenge of limited land mass being faced in different quarters across the state, the big question here is how viable and how visible is this call for urban farming in Lagos State? And I remember someone saying, farming is very good because if you look at us as a country, the history over time, whether that Nigeria agricultural contributed a larger about 60 or 70% to her GDP. And that was at a time before we now discovered oil and it feels like oil has become a curse or not necessarily a blessing because we have focused all of our attention. I'm thinking that the attention we have paid on the oil sector, if we have to divide that into two, maybe just maybe the agricultural sector might just be making... Yes, yes. It's great. I put my hands together for the Lagos State Commission of Agriculture. We need to ask ourselves, what is urban farming? Urban farming is a cultivation and distribution of food around urban centers. So where would normally expect the food to come from the rural places? You have the villages and the localities or the rural communities. We're now saying, okay, people within Lagos, people in Leci, people in Antony, in Ikeja, all right? Through Lyrae should be planting. And then you ask yourself, where is the space to even start planting? Because there's no space to even move. We don't even have where to park our car. Where are people parking their cars? You understand? There's no space. People are struggling to pay their rent. But the thing is this, what the government is saying is for the good of Nigerians, of Legosians, which is if you can cultivate your tomatoes at home, you can cultivate your peppers, eat on a subsistence basis as for yourself, or even do it to even sell, okay? It'll greatly reduce how much you spend on food. The cost of food is high. In 2019, Nigeria's agricultural imports rose by 12.18%. And we're spending as much as $959.28 billion Naira to import food into the country. That was 2019. I'm sure in 2020, 2021, they would have gone up because of the dollar Naira ratio and how things have become in the economy. So people need to start planting at home. Do we have what it takes? Remember as kids, we used to have tomatoes around. Exactly. I'm sure you had pumpkin. So I grew up with my grandmother. I was going to talk about pumpkin. So you can only imagine. Now the truth is you're even going far with all of that statistics. Let's even calm down. We're in Legos and it's a good thing that the Legos state government is saying let's be self-sufficient in production of food, at least to take care of ourselves. And maybe just maybe can trickle down to other parts of the country. I doubt if we get to that point where we can supply to other parts of the country. But like you have mentioned, let's farm what we can consume. Do you know how much vegetable is right now, Ugu? What they call the Ugu, the pumpkin leaf. I mean a portion, I don't have to call that. It's like 700 Naira. And you need to see how many strands you have there together, that's 700. So that's a lot. But I also like the fact that the government, because the major challenge here is land. The space, there's not, I mean you don't have a lot of land mass. Here we import Afang leaf into Nigeria from outside the country. Well, so I don't know. I don't know about how that happens. But I know that, you know, for Legos, if you look at it, you don't even need a sootsayer to tell you. The land mass is a big problem. So people don't even have. And the issue of climate change and the fact that, you know, we live in, the flooding issue also is also a big problem. So yes, we know the government has suggested that people can plant buckets, you know, have the bucket, jabakia and all of that. But do we even have? It's a great idea. Because not everyone, everyone doesn't own a property. And some of the properties you find, take it travel. I mean, take a move. I don't want to say take travel, move around like you. How many of this, you know, space do you even have? But it's a wonderful idea. If the government can look at ways to train people, put out information on how people can do this, I'm sure people will want to do it. Because you're looking at ways to reduce the bill. In Legos, you have to plan yourself. You have to plan when you're going to go to my 12 market to buy your tomatoes or go to wherever market you can go to, to buy your meat in bulk and all that. People are planning and it's not funny. So it's a good one. I don't think it's just like you want to shoot government down. If we can have some sort of training. Not true. It's a fantastic idea. I don't even think that we need too much training. Maybe what the government is even saying is like, if you can see the pictures on the screen, it's really simple. But you don't necessarily have to have all of those bags. It's not that simple. Some people don't know how to do it. Even if you just have a few sets of fresh pepper behind your house or a bucket. Some people don't know how to do it. Some people have never planted anything in their lives before. Well, we're hoping that the Legos state government and everyone will do great in showing. It's a good call, by the way. And we applaud the government. We understand the need that we need to be self-sufficient in food production. But like Kofi has mentioned, a lot of people do not know the, don't have the technical know-how to cultivate anything. Maybe we need some education and some kind of learning to understand all of this. What are we planting? What are we planting? Fresh tomatoes. All right, all right. I look forward to tasting some of those. Snail. We grow everything. I look forward to tasting the tomatoes in particular. All right, that's it from us right here on Plus TV Africa. The breakfast has been quite interesting. It's been a thrill having you and we hope to have you again tomorrow. But you can always hook up with us online on our social media pages and on YouTube. It's at Plus TV Africa and Plus TV Africa Lifestyle. Do subscribe. Facebook and Twitter is at Plus TV Africa. I am Messi Bukbo. Do have yourself a fantastic day. My name is Kofi Bartels. See you tomorrow.