Nigeria Spends N1 Billion Daily On Rice Importation
AllAfrica -- August 21, 2012 -- The Federal Government is worried that the sum of N1 billion is spent daily on the importation of rice and decided to partner with China Exim Bank to import 100 large-scale integrated rice mills through the private sector to improve the quality of the local product, minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Akinwumi Adesina has said.The minister who disclosed this at a press briefing he held alongside president of Rockefeller Foundation, Judith Rodin, said the Federal Government entered the partnership to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice by providing the needed "industrial milling capacity."
Showing Rodin sample of Nigerian rice, Adesina said, "If you look very closely, you will see that this rice is proudly Nigerian. Nigeria spends one billion naira everyday importing rice, and that is because they say that the local rice is broken, has colour, it has stones, it smells. Well, processing rice is not brain surgery. You just get the right technology."
He said the bag of rice is a product of one of the 13 new rice mills that emerged after President Goodluck Jonathan put in place a policy to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice production, adding, "Mr. President put in place a policy for us to become self-sufficient in rice. And the coordinating minister of the economy has been heroic in putting fiscal policy behind that to make sure it happens to support our rice producers.
"In the last one year, 13 new rice mills all by the private sector have kicked in, producing high quality rice, and this is one of them. Take a look. Yea, this is high quality Nigerian rice, parboiled rice and it is better than any rice you can get from Thailand, from India and it is proudly Nigerian.
"For us to drive back to self sufficiency in rice, we need to have the industrial milling capacity. And that is why the government went into partnership with the China Exim Bank. We are importing through the private sector once again, it's not government, 100 large-scale integrated rice mills. Those rice mills will mill 2.1 million metric tons of high quality, long grain parboiled rice," he said.
Large scale rice farmers from Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina states under the Sokoto-Rima River Basin Development Authority (SRRBDA) have said that with the provision of standard thrashing and milling machines, Nigerian rice will favourably compete with imported parboiled rice.
They lamented that despite the several hectares of land used in the double-cropping rice farming in the three states, there is no standard thrashing and milling machines to process the rice being cultivated in the area.
Copyright Daily Trust. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
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