NIGERIA will achieve full self-sufficiency in rice production by 2020, Minister for Information and Culture Lai Mohammed has said.
The minister said end to rice importation in 2020 is also achievable.
He added that investment in rice production would rise to N250 billion and urged Nigerians to support President Muhamadu Buhari’s agricultural revolution by minimising their taste for imported rice.
Mohammed told reporters in Lagos that the proposed self-sufficiency target would be made possible through the rigorous pursuit of the diversification agenda of the Buhari administration, with a particular emphasis on rice production.
The minister spoke on the achievements of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme launched by the President two years ago, adding that under the scheme, farmers now have more access to farm implements and financial assistance.
Lauding the initiative, Mohammed said: “The result is the exponential growth in local rice production that has now moved us closer to ending rice importation. Within two years, rice importation from Thailand fell from 644,131 metric tonnes (in September 2015) to 20,000 MT (in Sept. 2017). That’s over 90 per cent drop.”
The minister said the Buhari administration had shown more commitment to agricultural development than the previous administrations.
He said: “So far, less than N100 billion has been spent on the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme that has achieved so much. Meanwhile, in April 2008, the Federal Government had to quickly release N80 billion from the Natural Resources Development Fund to import 500,000 MT of rice to cushion what it said was the effect of a global disaster. “Imagine that we have ploughed that money into rice production in 2008. We would have been exporting rice by now.”
Mohammed said the statistics from the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria (RIPAN) on rice farming, milling and distribution states that there are more than 11 million rice farmers in Nigeria today, unlike the five million recorded in 2015.
He also said RIPAN’s total investment in the economy is in excess of N300 billion, stressing that the upcoming investments rise to N250 billion.
The minister explained that the new investments would create new 5,000 jobs, yield 1,775,000 MT of integrated rice milling capacity and save Nigeria from the burden of $300 million FOREX through local processing.
He noted that Nigeria’s rice paddy production has increased in the last three years from four million MT to seven million MT, adding that the rice import bill, which was $1.65 billion annually, has dropped by over 90 per cent.
Shedding light on the prospects of self-sufficiency, Mohammed said: “Our target is to achieve self-sufficiency in our paddy rice production by 2020. Nigeria’s current rice consumption is approximately 6m MT of milled rice.
“In 2015, Nigeria produced 2.5m MT of milled rice. By 2017, it rose to four million MT, leaving a gap of two million MT. Our target is to fill that gap by 2020.
“In 2015, there were only 13 Integrated mills. By 2017, the number rose to 21, after eight more were added. Please note that the new investments were made when Nigeria was in recession, indicating investors’ confidence in Mr. President and the Nigerian economy.
“The investments have not stopped. Fifteen more mills are about to take off, including the Dangote Rice Mills to be established in six states with a total capacity of about one million MT.”
The minister said rice production has generated 5,000 skilled employment through the activities of over five million farmers, in addition to over 500,000 input suppliers.
However, Mohamed lamented that the activities of rice smugglers led to the smuggling of over two million MT of parboiled rice into the country last year.
He said smuggled rice enter Nigeria from Thailand and India through the borders with Benin, Niger and Cameroon.
The minister added: “The total demand for white rice (white rice is consumed in Benin, against parboiled rice in Nigeria) is 400,000 MT. Yet the country, with a population of about 11 million, imports between one million and 1.2 million MT of rice annually.
“Who are they importing for? Nigerians, of course. In fact, as Nigeria’s rice import falls, Benin’s rice import increases. Most of the parboiled rice imported by Benin eventually lands in Nigeria through smuggling.
“Both Cameroon and Benin Republics have lowered tariff payable on rice to 0 and five per cent respectively to encourage importation and subsequent smuggling of the product into Nigeria.”
Explaining why imported rice is cheaper than the locally produced rice, the minister said: “Smuggled rice is sourced mainly from Thailand and India, countries which give a high level of subsidies to rice farmers and rice processors.”
Mohammed lauded the role of fertiliser production in the overall agricultural programme, saying that the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI) launched in December 2016 to deliver commercially-significant quantities of affordable and high-quality fertiliser at the right time to farmers has achieved results.
He said: “In 2017, PFI saved the government N60b in would-be subsidies. The forex savings in 2017 was $150 million, thanks to the substitution of imported inputs of NPK with locally-sourced inputs.
“Eleven moribund fertiliser blending plants with a combined capacity of over 2m MT have been revived. 12 more are to be revived to bring to 23 the total number of plants that will partake in 2018 PFI. Over 6m bags of fertilizer have been sold to farmers at N5,500 per bag.”
The minister urged Nigerians to complement the efforts of the government by consuming only locally-grown and processed rice, pointing out that “it is fresher, tastier and healthier”.
He added: “Nigerians should remember that every time they eat imported rice, they are eating the jobs that would have been created for Nigerians and instead funding the creation of jobs in the source countries.
“It is important for Nigerians to know that when they consume imported rice, they are creating jobs in India and Thailand and destroying jobs across our country. Today, we have rice farmers in all states and all geopolitical zones.
In fact, most of us have friends and relatives who are farming rice. So, if we don’t patronise their product, we are destroying their livelihoods.
“We are embarking on a massive nationwide campaign to sensitise our compatriots to the need to support the rice revolution by consuming local rice. Nigerians are patriots. They want more jobs.”