BUMPER HARVEST IN KATSINA STATE AS FARMERS SMILE TO THE BANKS! By:
BUMPER HARVEST IN KATSINA STATE AS FARMERS SMILE TO THE BANKS!
By:
Nurudeen Dauda
1st September, 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! Here comes another good new from Aliko-Dangote farms in Jigawa State!Rice harvest begins in katsina state! Our patience shall never be in vain! President Buhari’s commitment to rice farming has started yielding positive 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!
A large scale cereals farmer in Dandume LGA, Alhaji Ya’u Unguwar Maigaya, said : “he had spent over 35 years farming rice but that he had not benefited as immensely from it in the last 10 years as he did this year”. Another farmer from Katsina said:“Local rice was not expensive in the past due to excessive inflow of the foreign variety. That was why the farmers were not making meaningful profit until this year that the federal government encouraged local production of rice. In the last two weeks I harvested 56 bags of paddy rice against the 48 the farm yielded last year”(Daily Trust: 1st September, 2016).
More so, the much expected Dangote rice is billed to hit the market soon as the company commences harvest of its first tranche. Ali-Dangote had inaugurated 8,000 hectares of Rice Out –growers’ Scheme in Hadejia, Jigawa State, with the distribution of Rice seedlings to farmers. The Aliko-Dangote Rice farming project which in conjunction with the federal/state governments will create about 10,000 direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs to Nigerians. However, the project will also be replicated in six (6) other states by Dangote group.
“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 300million 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 1.2billion people and export. China’s population is over 1.4billion 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 N210, 000 per hectare of farmland for cost of labour. About 70,000 rice farmers were engaged in Kebbi state. The federal government has invested N15billion on this year’s rice/wheat farming in Kebbi State.
Kebbi State River Niger Valley area in Kebbi North is 11,600 kilometer 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!