A Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) analysis of the state’s agricultural production indicates that Ogun State has competitive advantages in cultivation of food crops such as cassava, plantain, rice, yam, maize and sweet potato, among others and cash crops such as cocoa, oil palm, timbers, kola nuts, cashew and rubber.
Proximity to Lagos, the industrial and commercial capital of Nigeria and by extension Africa, with a population of over 20 million people, relatively stronger purchasing power and international presence, strategically places Ogun State in a very vantage position for agricultural investments, value chain development, and produce exports.
Realising the strength of the state to play significant roles in closing food production gaps and saving the economy of the country from collapse and the foreign exchange crisis associated with food importation, the Dapo Abiodun-led led government has a focus on the sector as a pillar on which the economy of the state could solidly rest.
The State Agricultural Agenda centres around six (6) key strategic pillars, which include Food Security and Support to Smallholder Farmers; Job Creation through Agricultural Value Chain Opportunities; Nutrition and Food Safety through the promotion of Cultivation, Consumption, and Business in Nutritious and Bio-fortified Foods; Agricultural Industrialization and Industrial Linkage of young people/farmers to Industrial process; Agriculture Hub; Strategic Partnership and Private Sector Engagement to key into Agricultural Policies of the Federal Government of Nigeria, including diversification of the Economy.
The state boasts of about the largest concentration of agro-allied industries, such as cassava-ethanol processors in Agbara, rice factories, egg powder and garri processing factories.
Boosting the Federal Government of Nigeria’s Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) called “Green Alternative,” which aims, among other things, to tackle core challenges limiting food production and security through import substitution industrialisation, job creation, increased productivity and value chain development, Ogun State government has made deliberate efforts to deepen food production, value chain enhancement and investment-friendly environment for agro-industrialists and smallholder farmers.