An Ekiti State senator, Ayo Arise, has promised to turn the state into one of the major producers of rice if elected governor in the July 14 election.
Arise, who declared his intent to run on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the weekend, promised to establish rice mills and package the local rice for sale within and outside the state.
The former Chairman of Senate Committee on Privatisation visited the APC secretariat in a carnival-like fashion where he unfolded his agenda to develop Ekiti State before the party executives and thousands of his supporters.
Arise stormed the secretariat at Ajilosun area of Ado-Ekiti in a long convoy of vehicles with popular Fuji artiste, Saheed Osupa, thrilling residents with his genre of music.
Also, a former Commissioner for Environment during the Segun Oni administration, Otunba Segun Olanrewaju, and his supporters, defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC at the ceremony.
Arise said rice production was one of the areas Ekiti has comparative advantage, adding that setting up of mills and packaging “Igbemo Rice” would generate cash into the state coffers and create jobs for the residents.
The senator noted that the industrialisation of Ekiti would be his priority to make the state less dependent on allocations from the Federation Account.
Elephant group, the nation largest and fastest growing indigenous agro commodities company has formally taken over through concession, the running of the Elele Alimini rice processing mill in Rivers State, from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The take over was disclosed in a release signed by Mr. Babatunde Ajibola, the group Media Consultant.
“The Mill has the capacity to process 210 metric tons of paddies of rice per day. With this development, a positive impact will be brought to the Nigerian Economy because it would create jobs both directly and indirectly and increase the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“It will guarantee food security and also go a long way in supporting the Federal Government efforts to ensure agricultural sustenance and food sufficiency,” Ajibola stated.
Mr. Tunji Owoeye, the Managing Director of Elephant group, assured of his firm’s readiness to make effective use of the mill, stating that Elephant pride rice, which is the firm’s local rice to be produced in the mill, will soon flood the market.’
He said the mill will also encourage the local communities to grow more rice through the out-growers scheme, thus expanding the agricultural value chain.
The Elephant Group in conjunction with the Edo State government and the Nigeria Incentive Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Landing (NIRSAL) has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to buy off cassava from about 350 farmers that will be benefiting from the Central Bank Of Nigeria (CBN) Anchor Borrowers Programme in Edo North Senatorial district of Edo State.
The Edo State Government has approved the sum of N140Million as its counterpart funding for land preparation for the program, which will engage about 150 cassava farmers and 200 youths in the senatorial district participating by cultivating 500 hectares of cassava.
In the agreement, Elephant group buys off the cassava from the farmers which will in turn be processed into flour. This program will kick off before the end of the year.
“We want to make the nation to be food sufficient ,create employment and support the federal govt policy of back to farm without sole reliance on oil and gas assets ’ Owoeye emphasized.
In pursuance of the task ahead, the group’s management has engaged the staffs in various effective capacity training in order to ensure that the company’s vision of planting seeds of economic growth in Africa’ is sustained..
AMOS ABBA writes on the dilapidating state of Benue’s Otukpo rice mill; a once burgeoning enterprise now cast in despair and under productivity.
In the hot and humid sun of the Benue region, building number 2, located within the premises of the popular Otukpo rice mill looks undignified. Wearing a rusted corrugated roof which bears the insignia of old age, its deserted parking lot reflects the sorry state of a rice mill created over 50 years ago for commercial purposes.
The scanty flow of customers in and out of the building does not typify the flurry of activities that usually welcomes the peak of the harvest season when paddy rice was milled and processed at the mill in the past.
Valentine Egwa was working on a faulty rice huller, a machine that removes husk from paddy rice when the reporter met him. A graduate of psychology from the University of Jos, Egwa’s failed attempt to clinch a white – collar job compelled him to get involved in the production process of rice at the mill since 1997. Ever since acquiring rice hullers some years ago, he has become an employer of labour at the mill. However, Egwa is quick to renounce the traditional practices involved in the trade.
He said: “The problem affecting Otukpo rice mill is the crude methods used to process rice locally. This makes the rice not to be stone free, making customers prefer imported rice to locally processed ones”.
Records of observation at the mill confirmed Egwa’s assertion. Many of the hullers used in processing the rice are aged and archaic, with many having been in existence as far back as 80 years ago. The poor facilities make it impossible for the mill to compete with marketers of foreign rice.
Otukpo rice mill with its sketchy history is arguably the first commercial rice milling plant in West Africa, set- up and managed by the defunct Idoma technical trading company (I.T.T.C). Located in Otukpo local government area of Benue state, the mill was created to provide gainful employment opportunities to the Idoma- speaking people of the middle belt and Benue state in particular.
At the time the mill was established, projections were set that Otukpo would be a commercial nerve center in the middle belt region of the country. The hope of the projection was hinged on the fact that the mill would attract traders from different parts of the country to Otukpo for the purchase of its locally processed rice. The rice mill once boasted of a staff strength of 3,000 people involved in the different stages of rice processing, working day and night, equipped with over 200 milling engines spanning over 20 hectares of land.
It was the largest employer of labour in its heyday in Otukpo and served as a veritable source of livelihood to many people. But those were the past glories; adversity weighed in on Otukpo rice mill in the late nineties.
Undermined by decrepit infrastructure, under-utilized labour force and under-performance; major customers from different states across the country no longer patronized the mill. The long distance involved in transportation of the rice products also contributes in no small measure to the dwindling fortunes of the mill.
Rice huller at Otukpo rice mill processing rice.
There is evidence to suggest that the now decrepit mill used to be a booming enterprise providing jobs for young people and women.
Samuel Ochigbo, a resident in the area reminisced about the mill when it was still booming.
“The rice mill provided jobs for people in the area. They were those selling fire wood to the millers and those providing water for pay. Everyone, both young and old had something to do. The rice chaff usually gathered was very high from the ground. It was a sight to behold until things began to decline steadily.”
With the federal government’s position on banning the importation of foreign rice; there appears to be prospects for local millers in the country as government’s expenditure would be channeled to utilizing the production capacity of the various rice millers across the country.
However, some rice farmers are not optimistic as there appears to be virtually no plan to strengthen and boost local production.
“You cannot ban importation of rice by legislation and expect everything to be fine. If certain steps are not taken to position the local millers to bridge the demand-supply gap of local production of rice, then consumers will face the horror of skyrocket prices of local rice if there is a total ban,” Valentine Egwa pointed out.
Millers in Otukpo rice mill face serious hurdles in meeting the basic requirements of local rice production because certain critical variables are not available. The mill does not generate its own power so when public power supply is interrupted, commercial activities in the mill grinds to a halt. Workers in the mill rely on water tankers sourced from neighbouring suburbs of Otukpo town like Otobi and Ochobo. The water does not come cheap; it is sold at exorbitant rates especially during the dry season.
James Iduh, a trader at the mill also highlighted some of the problems faced by workers. He urged government to provide more transformers to ensure access to electricity at full voltage as well as provide pipe borne water to help reduce the cost of the production of rice.
Furthering, he said: “We have been introduced to several co-operative societies to secure loans to improve our business but nothing is forthcoming. If government can assist us, it will go a long way in restoring the mill back to life.”
Rice workers at risk
A worker at Otukpo rice mill washing paddy rice.
The physical demanding nature of the activities involved in the production of locally processed rice has affected workers productivity and exposed them to serious health risks.
Emmanuel Obute, a final year student of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi whose palms have turned coarse as a result of exposure to the fire involved in the process of cooking rice in the mill called on the government to come to their aid, saying there should be an endowment fund to cater for those injured in the course of working on the mill plant.
Also, other young people involved in the temporary casual works in the mill to aid their immediate financial needs see their job not only as underpaying but disdainful.
David Baba, who had worked intermittently for six years at the mill on a part-time basis while as a student disclosed that it is difficult to return to the mill to work, considering its present state at a
time when locally processed rice is no longer patronized.
“Government should provide modern rice milling engines that separate the rice from stones at subsidized rates to Otukpo rice millers to keep them gainfully employed. This will make young people interested in the business”, he submitted.
Chinese investors are to establish an integrated rice mill in Akwa Ibom State to boost production.
Chairman, Heilongjiang Hegang Sanjiang Plain Rice Group, Heilongjiang, China, Mr. Wang Jingxin, stated this when the delegation visited the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr. Nathan Matthew Ekaette, in Uyo, the state capital.
Accompanied by the Consular-General of Nigerian Embassy in China, Ambassador Ali Ocheni, the Trade Commissioner in the Embassy, Mr. A. Agboluaje, Jingxin spoke of plans to set up a rice research institute in the state.
He said they were in the state to scout for investment opportunties in the rice value chain.
For a start, he said the company is embarking on a pilot production on 500 hectares of farmland, thereafter expand to 10,000 hectares.
Responding, Ekaette assured the team of government’s preparedness to support them with an enabling environment, adding that Akwa Ibom has a large fertile swamp land of over 100,000 hectares suitable for rice cultivation.
The Commissioner took group on a tour of the moribund government-owned rice farm at Mbiabet Ikpe, Ini Local Government Area. After an assessment of the farm and its adjoining land, the team said there was no need to take soil samples for testing as the luxuriant nature of rice and grasses were indicators of high fertility of the soil.
However, the Chinese investors demanded the construction of a 40-kilometre Odoro Ikpe-Mbiabet Ikpe-Ikot Essiyere Road leading to the farm, clearing of a 500-hectare swamp land and that state government officials undertake a facility tour of the company’s holdings in China to ascertain its capacity as well sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the company and the state government.
A rice milling factory established by an indigenous investor in Sokoto, Alhaji Nura Attajiri was inaugurated at the weekend by the state governor, Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko.
The rice mill is to complement rice production in the state and beyond.
However, the combined capacity of the mill is 1,250 kilograms, per hour, while the firm operates for eight hours daily, six days a week.
Wamakko who was represented by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Muhammad Arzika Tureta commended Attajiri for the gesture.
The governor who noted the efforts put to realise the establishment of the rice, said: “The firm was set up with two loans of N20 million and N10 million instalments, advanced to him by the state government out of the nearly N3billion loans disbursed to farmers and agro-investors in the state.”
Wamakko while stressing the landmark achievements recorded by his government thus far, also said it gave top priority to the providing subsidised fertlizers, agricultural inputs, tractors, pesticides and extension services, among others.
He further expressed happiness that such efforts were now yielding results with more people in the state producing more food for subsistence consumption and sales.
Also, the state Commissioner for Commerce, Alhaji Aliyu Achida, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed commended governor Wamakko for implementing several policies and programmes aimed at boosting food production and security.
Speaking, Managing Director of the Mill, Alhaji Nura Attajiri lamented the massive importation of rice, noting that although the nation has been blessed with vast fertile capable of producing all types of crops, including rice.
