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Coffey, an international institution that partners with local organisations to create opportunities in the economy, has said that Nigeria and other African countries will lead world rice supply in the future, enabled by available large arable lands for rice production in the continent.
A report by the Growth and Employment in States (GEMS4), funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), said that limited land for further expansion of rice growing in the Far East has made Africa the hope for global rice sufficiency going forward.
The GEMS4 project was coordinated by Coffey. It embarked on a mapping exercise of rice producing clusters in Nigeria, with the primary objective to provide comprehensive information on paddy production in the country. Through the survey, GEMS4 plans to support the development of supply chains from proximate rice clusters around existing commercial rice mills or proposed new plants in the country.
According to the survey report, Nigeria the largest producer of rice in West Africa and the second
largest importer of rice in the world, has a landmass of 923,770 square kilometres of land mass with 84 million hectares of arable land. 40 per cent of the arable land is farmed for annually; 10 per cent is used for producing rice.
Nigeria incurred a daily importation bill of N1billion daily in 2014 as the country’s per capita consumption is put at 34 kg and expected to grow at a rate of 4.5 per cent annually, according to the report. The huge import bill is expected to since Nigeria is reaching its goal of rice self-sufficiency having just a deficit of 1.3 million metric tonnes in 2016.
Nigeria’s annual rice demand for 2016 was estimated to have reached 7 million metric tonnes as output stood at 5.7 million metric tonnes from wet season and dry season production.
“75% of paddy rice is produced in the representing 12,662,541 tonnes in the wet season,” said the GEMS4 survey report. “25% of paddy rice is produced in the dry season, representing 4,262,613 tonnes.”
The survey found that 7 states in the North West Nigeria produced 72 per cent of the total rice output. Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, and Niger states are among the greatest rice producers. Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa states complete the list of the top rice producers in Africa’s most populous country.
Nigeria’s march towards rice self-sufficiency, according to the report, will be quickened if farmers across the country adopt efficient farming methods. Currently, just 13 per cent of the farmers surveyed reported using high yielding planting method; 32 per cent use irrigation; over 60 per cent farm in just one cycle; 56 per cent have access to at least 1ha of additional land.
Government needs to intensify efforts to ensure year-round rice farming as the survey showed that farmers were least influenced by the availability of government support.
“In the dry season, the estimated total number of farmers was 410,210 representing only 5.1 % of the total farming families,” the survey report said.
INNOCENT UNAH
