More farm laboratories have been advocated for across the country, to further ensure food sufficiency for the people.

Governor Dapo Abiodun advocated for this during a visit to the Soilless Farm Lab, located at Awowo in the Ewekoro Local Government Area of the state, noting that it was time for Nigerians to embrace agriculture, and eat what they grow.

The governor described the initiative as inspiring model that should be replicated in the country, to solve the problems of food and unemployment, saying it was a perfect example of a public-private partnership. He announced a waiver on payment for title documents and their immediate issuance, as well as a donation of N20million, to encourage promoters of the Farm Lab.

"As a responsible government, we are going to work with you. I asked how far you have gone with regularising your documents for this place. But I also want to support all of you. I am so encouraged by your level of enthusiasm, commitment, how intentional and deliberate you are. You know what you are, you are all champions.

‘’ I’m delighted at the beautiful tapestry of people from the length, breadth and outside the country. I commend the team lead of the farm for taking in over 1,000 trainee farmers between the ages of 18 and 35 years every three months, building capacity of leaders, as well as generating revenue and foreign exchange’’, he said.

Abiodun acknowledged the Alawo of Awowo, Oba Abdul-Fatai Olasunkanmi Tijani, for embracing the development of his town and the idea of the Soilless Farm Lab when it was first brought to his attention by the team lead of the farm.     In his remarks, Oba Olasunkanmi Tijani lauded the administration of Governor Abiodun for improving the welfare of Monarchs and for giving approval for establishment of the farm lab.

Earlier, Team Lead, Soilless Farm Lab, Samson Ogbole, who appreciated the state government for providing an enabling environment to commence the project, said the farm started its work-and-learn programme in September 2020, noting that it had trained over 10,000 people, with 6,000 young people from 28 states across the country.

"What we were doing is that everywhere we are going to set up a farm, while we were setting up a farm in that state, we do free training. We used the free training to get workers for free. But as they work for free, they are also learning for free. So, we tagged it 'Work and Learn", he said.