Kwara State government is to set up a soil laboratory in the state to support commercial agriculture as part of efforts designed to achieve food sufficiency and greater involvement of the private sector in agriculture as large scale business.

The State Governor, Dr. AbdulFatah Ahmed gave this assurance at the weekend in Ilorin the state capital while receiving an award for agricultural development from the International Soil Tillage Research Organisation.

Governor Ahmed said the slow pace of commercial agriculture development in the country was largely due to absence of standard soil laboratory, recalling that when the Shonga Farms Initiative took off in the state years back the soil testing was carried out in South Africa.

The governor explained that the planned soil laboratory was part of the state government's agriculture development roadmap to promote private sector driven commercial agriculture.

Dr. Ahmed said over 170 commercial farms across the state have been able to access loans to enhance their farming businesses under his administration's Demand Driven Off-Taker Scheme, adding that each of the farmers will mentor ten farmers.

"Our plan is that each set of ten farmers captured under the scheme will mentor another set of ten farmers on a continuous basis while the market for their produce was guaranteed as they would always enter into trade agreement with bulk buyers before planting", the governor said.

The Chairman of the Organisation's Chapter in Nigeria, Professor Stephen Ojeniyi said the conferment of the award was in recognition of the achievements of the state government in up scaling farming into commercial status in the state.

The team leader,who recalled the efforts of the former Governor of Kwara State Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki in promoting commercial agriculture, stressed that it was note worthy that Gov. Ahmed has sustained the tempo of transforming the state into the hub of commercial agriculture in the country.