By Olawale Ajimotokan
The Rice Farmers Association of Nigerian (RIFAN) has revealed that in spite of the deteriorating insecurity characterised by banditry, kidnapping, Boko Haram insurgency and herdsmen attacks on farmlands across the country, local rice farmers still produced enough quantity for domestic consumption.
The Chairman of RIFAN, Aminu Goronyo, who made this assertion yesterday, disclosed that the country produced 7.5 million metric tonnes of paddy rice in all the three cropping seasons in 2020, against the 7 million metric tonnes produced in 2019.
The country’s required consumption volume of the staple varies between 7.5 million to 8.5 million metric tonnes per annum.
Goronyo made the clarification in response to the outcry by the Nigerian Rice Millers Association that insecurity was affecting output and had led to insufficient supply of paddy to millers for rice processing across the country.
He stated that RIFAN was aiming to consolidate on the gains of last year by cultivating 14 million metric tonnes in all the three cropping seasons this year.
He named Niger State as the country’s largest rice growing state for the past two years, contrary to the impression that its capacity to produce had been disrupted as a result of the infiltration of the state by insurgents, kidnappers and bandits.
He also refuted the assertion that the security concern across the North-west was impacting on large-scale cultivation in Zamfara, Kebbi, Katsina and Sokoto states, which have large swathe of land for the cultivation of rice.
“The prevailing security situation is not impacting on rice planting. That is how we have been operating over time and already our farmers are used to it. It is not today that this thing (banditry) started. If you look at the pyramids of rice that are being exhibited by every state under the same situation you will know that our farmers are used to it. We have done 2020 wet season; we have done the first circle 2021 dry season; we are now harvesting the second cycle and we are preparing for the wet season. We thank the CBN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme,” Goronyo said.
He described this year as the best for RIFAN, and to witness what Niger State produced during the dry season rice cultivation under the prevailing atmosphere of insecurity.
“They have never produced rice like what they produced this dry season under the current situation. So it is like God is in control as farmers are doing their best to produce for Nigerians to eat because that is the only way to go”.
Goronyo also disclosed that RIFAN signed an MoU with the Republic of Benin on how to maintain self-sufficiency in rice production when the Presidential delegation from the neighbouring country recently visited Abuja to learn and partner Nigeria to achieve rice sufficiency.
