federal Government To establish 100 rice mills by Joke Akanmu

IN an attempt to meet the nation’s demand for rice, the Federal Government has concluded plans to acquire additional 100 large-scale rice mills across the country.

The plants, according to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, would have the capacity to mill 2.1 million metric tones (MT) of rice annually, equivalent of the annual rice import index in the country.

Adesina, who disclosed this in Abuja, said the rice mills would be in place in the next 12 to 18 months.

Stressing the need for the nation to grow its own rice, the minister said that by 2050, Nigeria’s annual consumption level of rice would have risen from the present five million MT to 35 million MT, adding that “unless we grow our own rice and move away from importing rice, we will be bankrupt”.

According to him, “Nigeria currently imports 2.1 million MT of rice annually. For way too long, the attitude of Nigerians has been to promote imported rice. As we spend over N1 billion daily on importing rice, we are simply using our stomachs to create jobs for farmers in other parts of the world while destroying incentives for the production of rice by farmers in Nigeria.

“So, while Nigerians smile as they eat imported rice, farmers of rice-exporting countries love us because we help to secure their own economies. But let me assure you that under my term, I will not stand for such. I am the Minister of Agriculture for Nigeria and my job is not to promote food imports into Nigeria, but to make Nigeria self-sufficient in production of its own food and export food”.

Adesina further disclosed that since the start of his administration, the government had completed three plants with the capacity to mill 90,000 metric tones of rice yearly.

Saying that some prominent Nigerian investors had started investing in rice mills, Adesina urged the private sector players in Nigeria to brace up and invest in rice production.

He mentioned that Nigerian local rice has changed from the past, as the country is growing and milling high quality rice that competes well with rice imported from Thailand or India.