PRESIDENT BUHARI’S FOOD SECURITY STRATEGY: RICE BUMPER HARVEST MAKES KEBBI STATE NOW A HAVEN TO MILLERS AND BUYERS!
PRESIDENT BUHARI’S FOOD SECURITY STRATEGY: RICE BUMPER HARVEST MAKES KEBBI STATE NOW A HAVEN TO MILLERS AND BUYERS!
By:
Nurudeen Dauda
August 16, 2016
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It does not require us ten (10) years to be self-sufficient in rice production! Indeed there is cheering news from Kebbi state! Our patience shall never be in vain! President Buhari’s commitment to rice farming has started yielding results in just one year! Kebbi state farming is just a test run programme which will be replicated in 13 other states. We can do it!
“Given the bountiful harvest that is being recorded by farmers during this year’s dry season rice farming, Kebbi state has become a new haven to conventional, local millers and rice traders from Sokoto, Kano, Zamfara, Ebonyi, Lagos, Maiduguri, Niger and other parts of the country. Also it has continued to witness the influx of rice buyers from Niger Republic, Benin and other neighboring countries”-(Daily Trust: August 15, 2016).
Alhaji Sahadi Augie, Kebbi State, chairman Rice farmers Association said: “Do you know that from April to this time millers and other rice traders from Sokoto, Kano, Zamfara, Ebonyi, Lagos, Maiduguri, Niger and others have been coming in trucks and trailers to buy rice here…Given this unprecedented success recorded in this year’s harvest across the state , Kebbi would not only meet the rice need of the country, but within a short time that of West Africa…I must say that the harvest was very good for us .It has never been like this before” -”-(Daily Trust: August 15, 2016).
Nigerians consume averagely 6 million tons of rice yearly, but the country produces less than one-third of what its needs despite the fact that about 19 states out of the 36 states of the federation can grow rice at commercial quantity. More so, 13 states of the 19 states can grow rice twice in year, meaning that they have the capacity to grow rice through both “Dry” and “Rainy” reasons farming. In America is only about 7 states out the 50 states that grow rice, but they feed a population of over 300 million people and export the rest. In India is only about its 10 states out of its 30 states grow rice, but they feed a population of over 1.2 billion people and export. China’s population is over 1.4 billion people but do not import rice.
The bulk of our rice importation before now is from Thailand, Brazil, India, and China thereby encouraging their farmers, creating jobs for them, growing their millers, boosting their customs duties and export; unfortunately on the other hand, we are frustrating our local farmers, creating unemployment among them. We were making farmers of other countries rich while we are poor. We continue to export jobs to other countries for years!
President Muhammadu Buhari launched the Anchor Borrower Scheme of CBN were farmers were encourage to cultivate a minimum of one(1) hectare of farmland and or a maximum of five(5) hectares of rice. Under the system the government provides seedlings, pesticide and N 210, 000 per hectare of farmland for cost of labour. About 70,000 rice farmers were engaged in Kebbi state. The federal government has invested N 15 billion on this year’s rice/wheat farming in Kebbi State.
Kebbi State River Niger Valley area in Kebbi North is 11,600 kilometre square of irrigable land. It was estimated to be about 120,000 hectares of irrigable land alone the river Niger Valley and Kebbi state has over 500,000 hectares of Fadama land.
May God protect our farmers and us from the flood prediction! May God bless Nigeria!