Ministry Maps Out Plans To Preserve Excess Rice

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, ?Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, said on Tuesday that plans?were?under way to preserve excess?rice produce in the Strategic Grain Reserves.

The minister said this on Tuesday in Abuja in his welcome address at the U.S.-Nigeria Commodity Storage and Training Workshop on Silo Complex and Management.

Represented by Dr Olajide Olumeko, the Director, Strategic Grain Reserves Department in the Ministry, Akinwunmi said that the idea?was to avoid glut as well as sustain farmers’ interest in production.

?”The results of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) is already manifesting with substantial increase.

“There is currently bumper harvest of rice due to strategies put in place; farmers produced about 1.1 million tonnes from the dry season farming the ministry implemented for the first time in 2012.

“The millers are not able to purchase them completely and may result in glut, if urgent steps are not taken to address the issue.

“I have directed the Strategic Grain Reserve Department to work out modalities?for?mopping-up the excess production into the reserve as a strategy of sustaining the interest of farmers to remain in production.”

Adesina also said that this would likely be the trend for other crops to minimise post-harvest losses through effective and efficient storage.

He noted that the workshop was relevant to the ATA after a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) showed the need for “critical knowledge for proper stored grain management practices”.

He recalled that a total of 130 relevant stakeholders among which 77 were from the Strategic Grain Reserve Department, benefitted from a similar training in 2010 and 2012.

Adesina called on the organisation to assist in the establishment of ‘Close Loop Fumigation System’ in at least one of the silo complexes and the introduction of advanced grain monitoring instrumentation in the complexes.

It would be recall that Adesina said on Monday?that the ministry and a U.S.-based multinational food security company, Blumberg Grains, had signed a Letter of Intent (LoI).

He said it was for the establishment of a 2500-million-dollar?large-scale food storage facilities in Nigeria.

Adesina said that the Federal Government’s goal was to make the country a global powerhouse in food production and added that the facilities would further enhance Nigeria’s regional position in agriculture.

Meanwhile, Mr?Olabode Saidu, the?Deputy Director, Strategic Grain Reserve Department, who spoke afterwards, said that the workshop would?provide adequate knowledge on storage skills to both silo maintenance officers and?farmers.

“We have been beneficiaries of these trainings in the last three years and it has really impacted on us in the area of learning skills and new techniques in grain management.

“The grain you store is like money; you lose it, you lose a lot of money and resources, so you have to be able to manage your grains very well.

“We will ensure that farmers are thought the rudiments of storage through the extension arms of the ministry, which will help them store at farm gates before taking to the central collection point.”

He said that the department was?also working to ensure that farmers who brought their grains for storage received?a warehouse receipt which would?also serve as a collateral?to obtain?loan from banks.

The three-day training which attracted 110 stakeholders nationwide, was?organised by the U.S. Department for agricylture?in collaboration with USAID, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, IITA, Ibadan, and state Ministries of Agriculture and Natural Resources.