Group photograph of participants at the CoP for Commissioners of Agriculture

The Commissioners of Agriculture across the six states of Southwest Nigeria met in Abeokuta, recently, to find new ways of improving the region’s agricultural output. The forum was also attended by Permanent Secretaries and Special Advisers/Consultants to the State Governors on Agriculture.

The forum follows the training and inauguration of the Southwest Agricultural Change Facilitation Team (CFT) and Change Management Team (CMT), in August (Ogun State) and September (Lagos State), 2019. The inauguration of the CMF/CMT was led by DAWN Commission and supported by PERL, to manage and monitor implementation of action plans for governance reform in the agricultural space. The CoP for Commissioners of Agriculture works with the Change Teams to implement the action plans and consolidate on agricultural gains for the benefit of the region.

At the forum, States agreed on regional priorities, some of which include:

• Development of Agricultural Market Information System, to map out functional stakeholders across the agriculture value chain
• Promotion of regional rice project partnership
• Development of regional agriculture policy
• Synergy for better agricultural market governance
• Strategic partnership with private and donor organisations
• Leveraging on the comparative advantage of States within and outside the region
• Strategic coordination of knowledge sharing and learning on agriculture by DAWN Commission.

PERL continues to work with the DAWN Commission for improved governance that leads to better service delivery in States across the region.