Nigeria which consumes about six million tonnes of rice yearly is taking a bold step towards attaining self sufficiency in domestic production of the staple food in the face of dwindling cover for imports.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo held a crucial meeting at the State House yesterday with governors of the about a dozen states identified as part of Nigeria’s rice belt, in a national search for practical steps aimed at erasing the annual deficit of about three million metric tonnes.
The meeting was also attended by Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) .
One of the decisions reached at the meeting was to agree on a national target of empowering one million rice farmers to get on the land in the next one month when the rice season begins.
The expectation is that the national deficit will be cut by half in the next one year.
It was also agreed that the Federal Government should establish a guaranteed price for local rice, as an incentive for farmers.
Officials from Kebbi state which is the leader in rice production said they envisage that total production in Kebbi will rise from the current 800,000 metric tonnes to about 1.2 million tonnes in the next one year, on the back of a vigorous initiative by the state governor.
Nigeria’s race to end rice importation goes beyond mere elimination of the foreign exchange allocation to rice, as it is also a move to improve the nutritional intake of the people for whom rice has become a regular at dinner.
Oluwarotimi Fashola, an agronomist and rice consultant, told BusinessDay yesterday that the bulk of rice imported into Nigeria ages between five and nine years.
Fashola said, “when you compare locally grown rice to imported stock, you will find that the local one has significantly more nutritional value.”
At the state house meeting, it was revealed that the bid to expand rice cultivation in the country had only been backed by Nigerian farmers, a subtle hint that the large foreign firms involved might be sabotaging the government’s initiative.
Fashola seemed to support this view when he said there was clear evidence that some local mills in the country were bagging imported rice and passing it off as locally grown rice.
He praised the move by the new government, saying that setting a national target was a good start.
“There will be ups and downs,” he said.
“You know that across the states, there are differences in soil composition, irrigation and in rain fall.”
Latest figures given on rice importation by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture through the former agric minister is that N1billion worth of rice was being imported daily and N365billion worth annually, up until 2013 which is about 42percent of the rice consumed as at that 2013.
Early this year (2015), the ministry of agriculture stated that about 1.5million metric tonnes, which amounts to 27percent of total annual rice consumption, valued at about N237billion was being imported, . This figure has continued to decrease as volume of rice imported continues to decrease.
