Farmers Foreclose Rice Importation After Border Re-opening

As the Federal Government prepares to reopen the nation’s borders to neighboring countries, Nigerians will not have any reason to import rice as the country has self sufficiency in the production of the commodity.

The President, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, Alh Muhammad Goronyo said this during an interview with our correspondent.

He spoke at the sidelines of the flag off of the 2020/2021 dry season farming in Niger State.

The Federal government had shut its borders to neighbouring countries 14 months ago for reasons which included smuggling of rice into the country with the aim of improving the local production.

Rice production in 2019 was 4.9 million metric tons, which is below the seven million metric tons annual consumption.

In an effort to boost rice production in Nigerian, the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria had introduced an intervention program, Anchor Borrower Scheme, which offers finance to farmers at a lower interest rate, among others.

The policy had empowered over 1.3 million farmers and in the process facilitated the cultivation of over 1.3 million hectares of land across the country as well as the production of an average of 5.5 million metric tons of paddy at four tonnes per hectare.

The policy according to farmers had led to a significant increase in the number of rice mills, as over 95 processing mills across the country have been built and made effectively operational.

THE WHISTLER findings showed that the rice production for 2020 had been affected by several factors, which includes; flooding, high electricity tariff, poor road infrastructure, poor equipment and smuggling among others.

But Goronyo, told THE WHISTLER during the interview that contrary to speculations that there’s no sufficient rice in the country, Nigeria currently has enough to eat and export to other African countries.

According to him, “They say there is no rice in Nigeria but we that are farming knew there’s rice, enough rice in Nigeria and more than enough to export to other African countries.

“That is why we portray the Egyptian and Nigerian rice pyramids for all to see. The paddy that you see here is just a fraction of what we cultivated in Niger State.”

He said the success story in rice production is currently replicated across different parts of the country.

Goronyo said the plan of rice farmers is to achieve five million metric tones under dry season.

He said, “We have rice in Sokoto, Cross River, Zamfara, Ebony, Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, Kwara, Ekiti and other states.

“So even if the border is reopened, Nigeria will not import rice again because we have more than enough in the country.”

When asked what was responsible for the high costs of the products despite claims by the Association about its availability, he said, “We have a strategic partnership with the Central Bank where we try to achieve availability, affordable and accessibility.

“That plan is a strategic partnership that we don’t want to unveil now but God willing, Nigerians would be able to get rice at the door of their houses at affordable prices.

“By the time the rice is available and it is accessible, obviously it would be affordable. Because we intend to create units around the 109 senatorial zones so that the issue of transportation costs will not be there and if that has been eliminated, and other handling charges are eliminated, the product would be affordable.”