What kind of rice should rice consumers in the country expect from collaboration between the Yobe State government and Chinese investors in a trial agricultural project in the state?
Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni said a group of investors from China would establish 10,000 hectares of rice plantation in the state as part of his administration’s efforts to develop agriculture.
“We are ready to partner with you and we should immediately take advantage of the cropping season,” he was reported saying when the investors visited him in the state capital, Damaturu, on July 20.
Yung Wang, the leader of the group, said investing in the state’s agricultural sector would boost food security and contribute to economic growth, according to a statement issued by Mamman Mohammed, the governor’s press and media affairs aide.
“The variety would produce five times the quantity of local rice produced on the same piece of land,” Wang was quoted as saying. “We are transferring modern agricultural technology currently used in agricultural production in China.”
Agricultural technology transfer is one thing; the introduction of another variety of rice is another thing. From Wang’s words, the said variety, which will be produced locally, is different from local rice. It is unclear what the variety looks like and tastes like.
Interestingly, President Muhammadu Buhari had spoken about rice production and consumption in the country when he addressed local government chairmen from Katsina State in Daura on July 15.
A statement issued by his spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, quoted Buhari as saying: “I said we must grow what we eat and eat what we grow. This is a country that was once dependent on foreign rice. We closed the border to foreign rice. I said why can’t we eat Nigerian rice. And with the policies put in place, Nigerians are eating home-grown rice.”
The Yobe State rice project with Chinese collaborators prompts questions. Is Nigerian rice any rice grown in the country? Does home-grown rice mean rice grown or produced in the country; or rice belonging to, or originating in the country?
Wang’s words suggest that the Chinese are coming with a new type of rice, unknown in the country. If that is the case, it can be described as foreign rice, until it is domesticated.
Efforts to boost rice production in the country are commendable, but the people want more than that. The price of rice, which is one of the country’s staple foods, has been rising. Improved production is expected to bring down the price. When that happens, it will be very good news indeed to very many Nigerians.