Ogun State government has called for the continued support of private sector in the agricultural development efforts of the present administration to attain food sufficiency.

The Commissioner for Agriculture and Food security, Hon. Bolu Owootomo made the call during the farm inputs distribution to Small Holder maize farmers across Ogun State put together by the British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation.

Hon Owootomo noted that the capacity building and distribution inputs to maize farmers were in tandem with the efforts of the present administration at supporting the small holder farmers to improve their productivity.

The Agriculture and Food security said there was the need for the foundation to consider women farmers especially in the rural areas and financial inclusion as essential components of achieving food security in their next intervention programmes.

Hon Owootomo who used the event to encourage the local and other investors to explore the investment opportunities that abound in the agriculture sector of the State restated the resolve of the Ogun State government to continue to encourage synergy with various development partners through different initiatives and interventions.

Earlier, the general manager, British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation, Mr Oludare Odusanya had explained that distribution of the farm inputs to five hundred maize farmers in the Ogun State was aimed at providing succour for them in the midst of hardship and enhanced food productivity and availability of the commodity.

Mr Odusanya who noted that over a million farmers in the agriculture value chain had benefited from their various interventions restated the commitment of the foundation to partner governments to boost food production in the country.

In a remark, The Chairman, Maize farmers Association of Nigeria, Ogun State chapter Mr Kokumo Olanrewaju said the distribution would go a long way to increase the production rate of the commodity.

Some of the beneficiaries who went home with items like Maize, fertilizer and insecticide thanked the sponsors of the programme and called for the sustainability of the initiative geared towards empowering the farmers n the state.