By Juliana Agbo, Abuja

The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) said Nigeria still has a deficit of about 1.2 million metric tons which the country’s production has not been able to meet.

This was made known at the Annual Review of the Nitrogen Efficient Water Efficient Salt Tolerant (NEWEST) rice project in Abuja.

This rice variety, also called Nitrogen Use Efficient (NUE12) , allows the plant to make use of limited nitrogen in the soil, resist drought and withstand salty soil.

The NEWEST rice has undergone confined field trials at the National Cereal Research Institute, Badeggi, Niger State and a dossier is being prepared to be sent to National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) for permission for a National Performance Trial.

The project is being carried out by AATF, National Cereals Research Council of Nigeria (NCRI), Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) and other partners.

Speaking, the Project Manager for AATF, Dr Kayode Sanni said the conventional rice varieties in the country have low yield per hectare.

Dr Sanni who is also the leader for Alliance for Hybrid Rice in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya said the Review meeting will initiate the dossier preparation for submission to the NBMA for approval.

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“What we have done is that we have developed rice that can actually grow under low nitrogen and still give a very good yield.

“From observation and what has been happening in Nigeria, the production of rice has gone up a bit. As at 2015, we are about 3.9 million metric tons, and by 2019, we will move to about 4.5 million metric tons.

“However, we still have a deficit of about 1.2 million metric tons which our production has not been able to meet, and in order to meet that, we will import.

“The productivity or the yield is low compared to what Global is, the average yield is about 2.2 tons per hectare, that does not say there are no area where you have yield up to 5 tons per hectare, but when you take the average across It’s about 2.2 ton compared to the global average yield which is about 4.3 tins per hectare”, he said.

Also, the Director General of National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Professor Abdullahi Mustapha said the country is losing billions of Naira annually owing to the massive importation of rice.

Mustapha said a lot of job opportunities are lost because of Nigeria’s inability to produce enough rice.

“Nigeria is moving forward in the area of development of climate smart crops and NABDA is among the front liners.

“The application of biotechnology tools to improve the quality of our local rice seeds will lead to a tremendous avalanche of wealth, job creation and a healthier environment”, he said.

Furthermore, Executive Director of NCRI, Dr Aliyu Umar said the project will contribute immensely to the economic growth of Nigeria while addressing certain key issues of environmental safety due to appropriate nitrogen fertilizer use.