Kebbi State Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Alh Garba Dandiga has assured that the State will help the Federal Government achieve 50 per cent self sufficiency target in rice production.
The Commissioner said the State has met it’s local need on rice production.
Dandiga disclosed this yesterday when he led about 30 journalists to large rice farms in Suru, as part of 2-day visit of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed to Kebbi.
He noted that about N1.5 million bags of rice was produced in the last farming season with an expectation to produce 2.5 million tons this year to help attain rice sufficiency target.
“We want to help Nigeria achieve 50 per cent of its rice requirement,” Dandiga said.
According to him, 16 local governments in the state from the Sokoto state boundary to argungu, Benin Kebbi, Suru, yauri among others are actively involved in rice production.
Asked of their target for 2018, the Commissioner said, “We are aggregating dry and rain fell seasons. This year, we want to record 2.5 million tons but the important thing is we produce more rice paddy in the dry season than the rain fell.”
He explained that during rain season, it would be difficult to access the paddy farm due to flooding.
At Suru, Dandiga showed the delegation a 20 kilometres rice farm towards the western part of the local government and 50 kilometres at the north.
“Last year, this is where they sold 1.5 million bags of rice paddy. It is the biggest in the history of the state. We have eight of this in the state, there is one at argungu, Jega among others.” He added.
Earlier, the commissioner led newsmen to a private rice milling facility in Kamba which is still under construction but with the capacity to produce 370 tons of rice per annul.
Journalists also visited the popular Kamba rice market, where tons of paddy are being sold for milling and exported to neighbouring countries such as Chad and Benin Republic.
The commissioner further restated the commitment of the State government to address challenges of high fuel pump price to ameliorate problems of farm irrigation.