• Holds World Record As Number One Importer
With average daily importation in excess of N1 billion, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has cautioned that Nigeria can indeed stop the importation of rice by 2015, if the right things are done.
World Bank and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) say that Nigeria is the world’s highest importer of rice, with Thailand being her number one customer.
• Holds World Record As Number One Importer
With average daily importation in excess of N1 billion, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has cautioned that Nigeria can indeed stop the importation of rice by 2015, if the right things are done.
World Bank and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) say that Nigeria is the world’s highest importer of rice, with Thailand being her number one customer.
But AfDB’s Chief Operations Officer, Dr Patrick Agboma, said that all the Federal Government needed to do was to triple rice production from the current production figures.
“If you hear about the amount of rice the country imports, you will wonder why it cannot produce its own rice. So the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) is to address this shortfall.’’
According to him, the bank is willing to help the Federal Government attain its food sufficiency target.
He recalled that the bank had earlier received a request from the Federal Government for assistance toward the agricultural agenda.
He said that progress been made with the government’s new rice policy, with the private sector providing 13 rice mills with 240,000-tonne production capacity.
He observed that with only 40 per cent of the over 84 million hectares of arable land currently utilised, the agricultural potential of the country had yet to be tapped.
Agboma added that this was why the sector remained critical in the diversification of the economy.
“There is cause for hope; we can begin by improving budgetary allocation to agriculture.
“In the 2013 budget proposal of over N4 trillion, agriculture and rural development was allocated just N81.41billion.
“This is far less than the 10 per cent that the African Union, in its Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme adopted in 2003, that its member nations should dedicate to agriculture.’’
Shipping Position Daily recalls that Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, had announced in 2012 that the country will stop the importation of rice by 2015, as the commitment to ensure rice sufficiency.
According to the minister, “Nigeria is now the largest importer of rice in the world. As our population rises, demand for rice is projected to rise from the current level of 5million MT to 36 million MT by 2050. Unless Nigeria begins an aggressive import substitution programme for rice, it will spend $150 billion annually importing rice by 2050 and the nation will be broke,” he said.
He disclosed that the Federal Government’s policy for now is to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice production by 2015.
“To encourage the production and milling of local rice, the Federal Government has raised tariffs on imported brown rice and finished rice. The policy is working. In the last 12 months, 13 new rice mills, with a total capacity of 240,000 MT, have been set up by the private sector,” he said.
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