Nigeria Imports N1bn Rice Daily -Jega

A major rice farmer and merchant, Alhaji Haruna Ibrahim Jega, has attributed the large quantity of rice imports by Nigeria, to the tune of N1 billion daily, to bad government policies on self-sustenance and greed.
Jega, therefore, described the tendency as madness, unnecessary and waste of resources, saying if government can afford to invest N365 billion annually for three years in research, establishment of standard rice mills and enhancement of rice production in the country, Nigeria will be one of the major rice exporting countries in the world.
Reacting to a statement by the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, that Nigeria is importing rice worth N1 billion daily, Alhaji Jega, said bad government policies on self sustenance and greed by Nigeria’s business class who are making a fortune from the imports are responsible for ‘this wasteful venture.’
“Nigeria has vast fertile land good for the production of rice and other food and cash crops. The only problem with rice production in this country is poor policies and inadequate support from government.
“Let government provide enough fertilizer to all classes of farmers; smallholders and the big farmers at subsidized rates; provide improved rice seeds that can produce long grain rice that can compete with the imported ones and give farmers loans with single digit interest to enhance production,” he appealed.
According to him, “government should establish, at least, six world standard rice mills and privatize them. Establish rice marketing board that will buy the rice as soon as the farmers harvest it. Let the river basins provide facilities for triple cropping per annum. Give us just two years and see what rice farmers can do,” he charged.
He regretted that, “a situation where government itself encourages patronage of imported rice by abandoning local rice and buying the imported ones for school feeding, as relief materials to foreign and local beneficiaries is very discouraging.”
A member of Rice Millers and Importers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Tunji Owoeye, had said at the inaugural meeting of the Nigeria Agribusiness Group recently that government’s grant of waivers to some privileged importers of rice is threatening local production and fast replacing local rice with the imported variety in the nation’s markets.
He said his association had provided the Nigerian Customs Service with vehicles to help in patrolling the country’s porous borders to checkmate smuggling of rice into the country, adding, “the continuous importation of the products makes it difficult for rice millers to stay in business as they are disadvantaged in relation to their counterparts abroad.”