Nigeria is to raise rice production from 4.1 million tonnes to 12.8 million tonnes by 2018, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Alhaji Salihu Gusau, has said.

Speaking in Minna on Monday at the launching of the National Rice Development Document, Gusau said that the programme was being executed under the Coalition for Africa Rice Development Programme (CARD).

“This is a major plan for tripling domestic rice production, improving indigenous processing capacity and enhancing the marketability of rice grown and processed in Nigeria,’’ he said.

He said that when fully executed, the strategy would save the country the more than 500 million dollars spent on rice importation annually, as well as impact positively on food security, job creation, balance of trade, poverty reduction and national productivity.

The Tide reports that CARD and Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) initiative, seek to double rice production in sub-Saharan Africa from 100,000 tonnes to 200,000 tonnes.

The permanent secretary said the programme would place priority on post-harvest, land, seed and irrigation development as well as adequate supply of inputs.

According to him, available data indicate that annual milled rice demanded in Nigeria was 5 million tonnes, while domestic production was more than 2.21 million tonnes, with a national deficit of 2.79 million tonnes, while the importation of rice stands at 695 million dollars.

He said Nigeria, in her quest for self-sufficiency in food production as means of achieving poverty reduction and food security, was among the 12 pilot countries selected for the first phase of CARD implementation.

Gusau said Niger, being the largest producer of rice in Nigeria, informed the decision of Federal Government to bring the launching to Minna.

Gov. Aliyu Babangida said it was unfortunate that large quantity of rice had to be imported to bridge its supply and demand gap.

He said that in spite of the estimated 4.6 million hectares of land suitable for rice production, only less than 1.6 million hectares is currently under cultivation.

Babangida said for all the rice initiative to be a success, the cartel that depended on the dividend of rice importation most be broken, saying the country could not continue to rely on importation to the detriment of the nation and the small-scale farmers.

He called on the Federal Government to raise the import duty on rice importation and concentrate on the development of local production.

Mr Moses Adewuyi, Director Agriculture Processing, said that under the programme, emphasis would be put on irrigated and rain-fed lowland rice development.

He said there was an urgent need to rehabilitate all the existing irrigation schemes and put more land under cultivation.