Researcher Puts Nigeria’s Rice Production At 3.2m Tonnes

A rice breeding researcher in Nigeria, Dr Alhassn Umar, has stated that Nigerian rice farmers produced 3.2 million tones of rice annually.

Umaru said that the figure was against the projected 5.7 million tones as figure for national consumption needs of the country.

In the research document, which was made available to The Tide at the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI), Rumueme, Port Harcourt, Friday, the researcher identified drought as the major challenge militating against rice production in 2013.

According to him, rice producing areas reported 50 percent devastation of the land by drought, pointing out that the low-land, ecology although accounted for 30 percent of the rice producing areas, it, however, produced the highest quantum of rice in the country, inspite of the problem of drought.

He stated that the absence of experienced researchers in rice breeding also hindered the production of the cropwas, which was identified as another factor that was militating against the production of rice in the country,

The researcher observed that no rice breeder stayed for a period of 10 years in research institutes, and urged relevant authorities to ensure that rice mills are installed or refurbished across the country.

These rice mills, according to the research document, would have the capacity to support 225,000 tonnes of rice production per annum.

“It is imperative that we adopt this technology as quickly as possible in order to be the world’s leading producer and exporter of rice, and if the proposed Ebonyi rice mill is installed, it will have the capacity to process up to 24,000 tonnes  of rice per annum”, Umaru stated.

Corlins Walter