A former
Commissioner for Lands and Survey in Delta State, Mr Raymos Guanah, has called on the Federal Government to establish rice mills in the rice-producing states in the country.
Guanah, who is Chairman, Ramous Guanah Farms, said in Asaba that this would help reduce the farmers’ burden of looking for where to process their products.
He said that establishment of rice mills in all the affected states would make farmers add values to their products and called on government to establish post-harvest storage facilities across the federation to enable farmers preserve their products
The former commissioner said that he supported the call for the ban on importation of rice because it would boost rice farming.
He stressed that apart from subsidy on fertilisers, government should also subsidise agro-chemicals and farm implements to aide small scale farmers.
Guanah noted that the greatest challenge faced by small scale farmers in the country was lack of government’s assistance.
He also said that the country was blessed with arable land and could not afford not to be self-sufficient in food supply, advising against politicising agriculture.
Government, he said, should think of ways of engaging members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in farming.
He said that deployment of NYSC members to mechanised farms would be more beneficial to the country than allowing them to cluster in government offices doing nothing.