The Federal Government has inaugurated a special intervention programme aimed at boosting rice production in Kogi and 9 other states of the federation, an effort which it said, would astronomically scale up rice production in 2013.
The intervention was unveiled shortly after the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) acknowledged the increased rice output in Nigeria and Ghana and that the global rice production for 2012 “will outpace consumption in 2012/13, resulting in an upward revision of five million tonnes in 2013 closing inventories”.
But in a statement, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, promised that the Federal Government would not rest on its oars until its targets for self-sufficiency in rice production was achieved.
He said the launch of a special intervention programme on dry season paddy production plan was also in 10 states of the federation including Kogi, Zamfara, Kano, Jigawa, Sokoto, Katsina, Bauchi, Gombe and Kebbi.
He explained the criteria for choosing the states, which he said, include existing culture of dry season rice paddy production, availability of water either from irrigation project or bore hole and strong state government support for the programme.
He added that about 159, 860 farmers “have enrolled into the programme and will plan 16, 731 metric tonnes of high quality seed on 334, 204 hectares of land, to be supported with 33, 420 metric tonnes of fertiliser.
“Fertilizer will be available at designated agro-dealers in each local government area. Registered farmers will receive two bags of fertilizer at 50 percent subsidy and are free to buy the remaining quantity of fertilizer to make up for optimum fertilizer recommendation per hectare at market prices from the agro-dealers”.
On seeds, the minister said a special arrangement had been made with the agro-dealers who handle fertilizers “to be the redemption centers for seeds. Each farmer will be entitled to 50 kg of seeds of improved rice varieties, enough to plant one hectare of land. The seeds will be provided free of charge while there will be enough seeds at cost price for farmers who intend to plant over one hectare of land.
“To abate possible water shortages at the peak of dry season, each state will be assisted with 250 water pumps and accessories. 2, 000 water pumps are being deployed for this exercise. To keep the paddy clean during threshing, provision will also be made for farmers to have access to 5 square meters of tarpaulin. A service provider will be attached to each State to supply the material at a discount,” he noted.
In its recent report, the FAO said that the world rice carryover stocks “are expected to rise by 7 per cent, or 10 million tonnes, to a new high of almost 170 tonnes, marking the eighth consecutive year of stock accumulation. As a result, the world rice stock-to-use ratio is forecast to rise from 33.6 per cent in 2012 to 35.5 per cent in 2013.”
The report said a significant achievement of the rice transformation agenda “is the creation of awareness of the investment opportunities in the rice sub-sector. Large rice farms are springing up across the federation with many having their own mills and clusters of out growers. Today, we have 14 integrated mills operating fully by the private sector. Another 11 large mills are under installation or rehabilitation and are expected to come under full operation by March 2013”.
