NIGERIAN TRIBUNE, 11 DECEMBER, 2011

Two Sunday Tribune. 11 December. 2 011

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1 • Rlceifcarm!!fS processing rice.

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Local rice: Will President J(ulathan's dream come true? In line wi t h the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan, the Federal Government, la st mDn th, announced plans to ban the importation of rice into the country. To demonstrate his commit m ent to th is goal, Mr President has stopped the consumption of foreign rice for local ones in the Villa. Against this backdrop, BANJI ALUKO and SAM NWAOKO examine the feasibility Df the plans and the state of rice production in Nigeria.

WHEN the \1lnlster of Ag ri cu lt ure. Dr. Aklnwuml Adeslna . told t h e Sen ate ad h oc Committe: 011 Agricu lture that Nigeria spend s

ANYTIME Of ada town Is mentioned. what readily e)mes to mind I, rice because of the pOPu.!i1111Y of th e rice lh at was produced In

tile hlUu~rlo s let,py community . So popular was local rice production In the town that the name of any locally produce. I rice In Yoruba-Ialld would later be referred to as C'fada .

That was some years ago. A vlsll 10 Of ada today wtll tell how much has changed about the town. The allct: sleep), and agrarian commun ity has lost all that oll~.madc It a c: ntre (or r1ce producUon in the South Wcst. No thanks to 1t5 proximity to Lagos. the naUon'S commercial nerve centre. many of lhe rice plantauons In the lown ha ve given way for housing estate. Indeed. the influx of pecple from Lagos State has turned the once quite town to a beehive of acUvlUes.

~Rlce town. ~ 115 Of ada was once referred to. Is no more .il r1ce to-~; Il Is now a shadow of Its old self. RIce planUng In the town h as now become h istory. Rlce fanners ha\ e turned their backs agains t fanning and h ave s ince d ec ided to sell the lands. whe re trucks used to load bags of rice. Estate developers h ave acquired them to build houstng estates.

Indeed . Of ada town Is no lunger a r1ce prodUCing town as It used to be. Il ls a lawn where Investment ill properly Is th-ivlng as more than over 100 estates are prcsemly In U,e town.

Some of lh~ rice farmers. who spoke with this

a whooping N2 t rilli on o n foo d Importation a nnually. It was not the first Ume government would express dlssatls fa c tlun over Ule huge sum

of money the n aUon spen ds on food ImportaUon . In deed . s u ccessive adm in istratio n s h ad also expressed Ule n eed to Increase local produclion

Of ada town: From rice far With the proposed ban on rice importation, OLAYINKA OLUKOYA visits Of ada town in Obafemi Owode .. Local Government Area of Ogun State to look a t the growth of local rice, popularly called Of ada in the town. reporter. said they h ad to take the s tep because of t.he succeslve poor turnover of rice In the luwn.

TIley attributed their decisions to the Insensitivity of govemm~t at all levels to the poor production of local rice. stressing that. they were ndther moUvated nor encouraged to conUllue in Ule buslncsa. TIley con ten ded that rice planting required a 10l of rarm machineries such as t ractors and agricultural 5upplement!l s uch as ferUlizers and m anure which were not made available by governmenL

Sunday Tribune met wllh U]e Bal og llA of afada

Sund.::ty Tribune, 11 December", 2011 T h ree

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"Let government give a tractor that costs about N4milZion or N5milZion to farmers

GIS they give cars and buSes to leaders a nd members of drivers' unions."

Alsegba stated that the plan may not go beyond the pronouncement made by th e president. According to them. the political will to follow Uuough such annou ncements has always been lacking.

This Is the reaso n the Ek UI ri ce farmers appear not to be moved by the proposed rice ban . TIley pointed out that they had done all within th eir power to ensure su stained producUon of quality rice on their fie ld s but thei r erforts remaJned low because they stili lack adequate s uppor! from relevant government agencies.

of some food crops so as to reduce the amount the coun tr:; was spendIng on food Importation .

Of great concern to the Agnculture Minister was r:cc ~'hlch the minister said the country s pent a mmd· boggllng N I bUlion everyday to Import . thereby making Nige ria the biggest importer or rice In Afr1ca and the second highest In th e \\'o ~ld . Documents from the Federa l t.'lInlstl)' v f AgrIculture and Water Resouces also s h ow thai Nigeri a 'S a nn ua l r ice d emand Is es Umi! ted a t 5 million tonnes. out of which onJy a bout 2 .2 million lonnes are produ ced locally. leaVing an .:mnual rice s upply gap of 2.79 million to n ned.

In lh elr bid to Increase food production In Nigeria. su ccessive govemments had Introduced different programmes In the past Some of Ule programmes Included the Na tiona l Accelerated Food ProdLCUon Project (NAYPP) ~t up In 1974; the Wo r d Bank-Assisted Development Programmes. set up 111 1975; Operation Feed the Nallon tOF1,,). 1976: the River Basin Del'elopment Authontles (RBDsJ. establIShed In 1977; the Back to Land (>r.lgramme (BLP) and the Directorate of Food. Roaes and Rural Infras tructures (DFRRI), both lntroduced In 1988 and more recently. the National Land Deve lopment Authority tNALDA) daUng frorr 1995.

Altho u@ h the p o li cies were ai med at !mprov lng food crop production such as rice, speCific e.l o rts were made to Increase ri ce production because of Its position as the number one s l,aple food In Nigeria . Some of these are the Nation 11 Rice Production Programme 1986: the Assoc lo..ted Rice Programme under the River BaSin Devf!!opmen l Authority a nd the Nlgenan Grains Production Compa ny.

Eve n In April last year. a major plan to triple domes tic lice production . Improve Indigenous processl n ~ capacity and e nhance the ma rketabUity of ri ce grown and processed In Nige r ia \VOlS launched by the National Ri ce Developml:n t S trategy INRDS). According to NRDS. the plan was -to Increase rice produc tion In Nigeria from 3 .4 millio n tonnes to 12.85 million tor nes Within a decade - an In,crease of nearly 300 per cent!

Th~ latest move by gove rnment to Imp rove n ce produ(Uon has brought to focus the state of rice produl'Uon In the country. In Eklll. one of

the few slates where rice Is locally produced , the proposed ban on rice has not come as a s urprise to local rice farmers In the s tate. If anything. they have taken It with a pinch of salt. Ulereby underlining Ulelr contention that they had heard such announcements In the pas t. Som~ of the n ee farmers In Igbemo. Ikogos l and

Accord ing to the vice chairman of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) In EkltJ State. Mr. John Bamlsaye OmoyaJowo. getUng s upport from government to boost agriculture In the state h as not been easy. Omoyajowo said -government Is not using AFAN as It should In Ekltl State, - saying -civil sen'ants are not our frlends.- He gave the example of a loan that was rece ntly d istributed to farmers In th e sta te, saying that AFAN was not carried along when the loans were disbursed . According to him. farmers who are members of AFAN In the stale h ave not benefitted from government special Interve ntion programmes wh ere counterpart fu nding 15 given for accelerated food producUon.

On the effects of the proposed ban . he sa id lh e policy was very good. pointing out lhat the present regime of Importation posed a threat to the health of Nige rians beca use of the poor nutrltlon;:t.1 qualit y of Imported ri ce. -The Imported ri ce Is neat In ouliook but poo r In nutrttlonal quality and Utls Is not very good fo r tile teeming populaUon of Utls country. - He added th a t the Federal Gove rnment shou ld follow

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farnls to.housing estates

the farmers fina lly stopped rice productton about 10 years aner falling to conquer the many challenges

thai a lTected thelr productions . The maj or reason the rarmers stopped r ice

cultivation . according to AJh aj l Adebayo. was the s ustained Invasion of bird on their plantations. He expla ined that efforts by the farmers to curtail the Invasion or the birds did not work and a[ [he end Ole fanners abandoned tllelr pla ntations.

Aa:ordlng to him. by the time the death knell was finally sounded on nce production In Ofada. Ule nee that was being produced In the town was not enough or land that could stIll be used for the eonsumpUon of the people In the local At Konsa, only few kJlometres gOl'ernment. not to talk about selling 10 others. a 76-year-old nee farmer, Pa Al,1nd,~SodolMnu, '''d l

-It Is unfortunate mat rice farmers had to abandon rice farmers In the Vil lage were sUII producing tile production of rice because of the li ttle or no a lbeit In small quantity that ca nnot even reed attention they rec~lved (rom government. especially people of the village. the Federal Government. For over 10 years now. locaJ Pa Sodolamu said. -If you are a flee farmer In rice producUon has been stopped by the ranners. Village. you must get to the rarm as early as They lost Interest when they could not control the to chase birds away. Our children that used Invasion of birds Into Ihelr farms. There was no that for us have gone to Lagos for a bettcr llIe. metllod they did not use to control the birds from orus are of age and can no longer do Ulls any destroying their plantallons: he said. hence our decision to dlverslry Into oUler

He furthe r saJd that lot of money was sunk InlO He added that government should not ban rice production while IItlle profit was being made Importation until neccesal)' s teps a re taken aner ha rvest 11lJs. he said was the major factor tha i cushion the efTTecl of the proposed ban.

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Sunday Tribune, J 1 December, 2 011

'W"here did get. it.

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through Its plan to ba n Importation of rice bu t must In ves t genu inely In th e loca l production of the gra in , especia lly peasant fa nners who a re In the fie lds, cu ltivati n g rice . -Ek ltl S ta te Is producing rice but we a re not supported. We need nnancla l s upport. If tractors a re given to fanner'S, th e ir outputs will In crease a n d JobS wil l be c reated for people who will work on the fa rms.

- Let gove rnm ent give a t rac tor that cos ts abou t N4mllllon or N5mlllion to fa rmers as they

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give cars a nd buses to l e"a~d~,~",~a~n~d--"m~'~m~b~,~",~o~r~IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII""~~~~IIIII":'IIIII:IIIIIII~~~IIIIIIIIII~::~~IIIIIIIIII~~~:::::::=::: :=:-======~ d rivers ' u n ions. Le t r farme rs benefi t from such ges tures a nd you will see ou tput tu rning over : " 'e w ill crea te employmen t a nd the re wi ll be peace. As a farme r , I k now th a t one tr actor ca n quad ru ple the la nd cultivated by one p e rso n and wit h Imp roved seed li ngs, the ou tp u t wi ll In c rease an d b r in g abou t Imp roved cu ltural prac ti ces by the fa rme rs .-

He urged the Ekltl S tate gove rnm e nt to return to th e Ru ra l Develo p me n t Prog ram m e o f t h e gover n ment of late C hi ef Adeku n le AJasl n . w h ic h was a modifica ti on o f the Fa r m Se tt leme n t Sys tem o f lale C h id Obafeml Awolowo, that th e mi litary bo rrowed and tagged Directorate

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for Food Road and Ru ral lnfras lIUclU re IDFFRII: As for the question of land tha t wUl be used to

cultivate rice, he advised that government should br ing back th e Na tio n al Agr lc u ll ura l La n d Developmen t AuthOri ty INALDAJ, According to him , -the model Is good because where you have land, govern men t w111 develop It. proVide roads and other InfraslIUctun:. The land w111 be shared among the fanners tn that area. They w1 11 not have to s truggle too much with clearing and other relevant InlUaJ works tha t gIve famlers nIgh tmare due to ule high cost of carrytng them out. ~

The sit ua tion In Ben ue State, wh ere rice Is equa lly p roduced Is not diffe ren t from th at of Ek lt l. A visit by ou r re po rter to som e ri ce plan tations In the s ta te showed ll13t majority of rice fa rm ers in t h e state are pea san t farmers who engage In s ubs is tence rice plantation , while the few large plantatJons are o"'l1ed by p rivate agro-a li led compa ni es.

O n e of s u ch compan ies Is O lam Nigeria Limited . According to a rice fa rmer In the s ta te. ag ro -a lil ed com p a nies s u ch as O la m , h ave picked up the task of gran ting soft loan fac ilities to fa rmers a nd Ira ln fa rmers how to In crease p roduction .

An offi cer at Olam. who did not want h is n ame In print told Sunday Tribune 11181 though Senue-

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rice p roduction. s upport from gove rnment was lacking. s tress1ng that the rice produced In the s ta te could co~te favourn bly with foreign ones.

Mr Ac hlgbcl a rice fa rm er In t h e Sla te, told Sunday Trib un e tha i despite the encou ragi ng quantity of rice prod uced In the s ta te. aSSistance fro m g9vernment was grea tJy-needed to ensure massive produ ction of rlce_

"The soH In Sen ue Is good for the production o f ri ce. If onl y th e s t a te a nd fed era l gove rn ments cou ld In vest mo re o n th e prod uction of rice. we w111 produce unbelievable amount of rice In this s tal e,· h e Sla ted .

A sad s tory. however , Is tha t many of the agro­a lUed Industries In volved In rice producllon In the sta te a re gradually clOSing shops due to what th e offi cial a l Olam described as government's insens ltlVily to aid the growth of r1ce In the sta te, a pos iti on th e government of t h e Slale h as

"The starting poin t is the change of the existing Land Act in the country so that lands will be readily alXlilable for people

who want to grow crops,"

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den ied. TIle state gove rnor, Mr Gabr1el Suswam who. spoke about efforts made ,at ImprOVing the production of rice by his gnvernment, dismissed me pOsition saying. the agro-lI l1 led Industries were windIng up due 10 high cou of production . He, howeve r, promised to ,155ls1 tJle small -scale r ice mill Indust ries,

S u swa m s tated thal hie govern men t's focu s on food security was unshilken, stating tJlat h is admin ls trallon would expl(,re e',ery oppor tuni ty to en su re th a t the sta te nal n laln s Its lead In the prod uction of rice In Ille cou ntry.

What shou ld even be of great c:oncern to many Nigeria ns Is the s ituation .,r rice production In Ebonyt. a s tale tha i Is rega rded as the la rgest prod ucer of rice In th e coumrr an d where lIle fa mou s Abakallkl rice Is produ ::ed .

Over t he years. Aba ka li,(1 rI.;e has assu med wide acceptance across Nige ria. It Is for t hiS reason . amo ng others tha t Ebonyl Slate. with Ils abun dant na tura l resources. 15 orten referred to as th e h eadq ua rt e rs of r ic .! p rod uc ti on In Nigeria since rice Is p roduced In a ll the 13 local gove rnmem a reas In lh e ~ t ate .

According to Mr, Nweke Ugbala. a lice fafmer In the state. rice prod uction wh ICh was h itherto put at about 130,000 metrc tonnes per annum

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so me years ago. ha s go n e d own to a bo ut 25.000 melrlc tonnes. He adde d that then~

were many rr-asons for the de cline . a ddin g th at lack of s torage faclllues fo r harvested rice paddles ilS well as nuctua tl ng 3eason a l va r ia tio ns In s upply and prices of paddles combln~d to c ri pp le rice produ cLion In the sta te .

S u nday Tribune. 1 1 December. 2011

He to ld Sunday Tribune th ;1t o th er factors Include:d lack of Irrigati on fa( IIIlIes to make rl( e p rod u ction a n a ll yea r round affair. couplec with the preva len(e of nood and other el'o loglcal c hall enges In areas resl:'rved f' lr r ice production .

He sugges ted that governmen t s h ou Id accele ra te th e formati o n 0 1 clu s te r groups so as to enha nce prod u ctiVity. st rl:'s s lng lh .}t t hose who h a \,(' the ex perience 5110uld bl:' ga thered togethe·r .

I<.es"U.sci ta tir1g ar1 al.d. target

-I can a ss ure yo u that we can producl:' enough r ice In the country If the right atmosphere Is created.

MGlve u s .l u s t Six months . d l\'erl th e money sa,' ed fro m Importa tiOn to us and In s ix months. yo u would be s urpl·lsed. - he s aid .

I n lhe ro r th e rn parts of th e :ountry. although the illuaUon appears better as some sla te governmen ts are providing farm ma chiner ies to aid culti vation of upl and rice. many far mer s who spoke with

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Sunday Tribune. said they we re s ull being hampered by Inck of Irrigation fac UJUes to provide waler for Ule upland fann planlaUons.

Given thc presen t sltuaUon of rice in Nigeria. how the s hortralJ would be bridged Is s un not clcar as local J:·roducUon of rice Is sull abysmally poor In thc cou.lntry.

Speaking on U,e move to ban rice Importation . a lec turer and 5011 scientist at the Insuture or Agriculture Hesearch and Tranlng (tART). Ibadan. Mr J<uyode Are . said the move was In the right direction. nothing that there was need for government to pu t neccessary machineries In moUon before they Imposed Ule ban . •

MGovernmenl ca n e n courage farmers to c ulti va te ri ce by giVin g them subsid ies a nd provision of modem rarm machineries such as tracto rs. rice process ing ma chiner ies a nd Incentives . Jr these are done. then government can Impo"Se tile ban. ~ h e noted He. h oweve r. wa rned that If govern ment Imposed th e ban Without th e provision of the n eeded cond itions for easy cul li /ation . gove rnm en t wo uld have more problems on their hand to battle.

·WIUlDut Ulese UlingS in place. I see no reason why government should s top the Importa tion of ri ce . Governme n t orten boas ts that these

facilities are available but when you get to Ule neld . you wUl find out that tlley are Qat. Unless Ulese conditions are prOvided . the proposed plan wtll only amount to waste of effort.· he stated.

Hc added that what Ule Federal Government should do Is to take a qu eue from the Kwara Slatc gove r nm e nt. MThe on ly p lace I know fac lHpes are availa bl e for se riou s ri ce cultivation In Nigeria Is Kwara S tate where you have the Zimbabwean farmers who are really cultivating rice . That Is the only place I know lhere Is seriOUS rice cultivation In this coun try.M

He debunked cla ims th a t the soli In the country. especially in UIC northern parts. was not desirable for rice plantation. MVltually every soU can grow rice because there are varieUes of rice that can be culUvaled on any soli. One of these 15 Ule nerfca. "'ce. So. Ule quesUon of tllC desirability of our soli does not come in at all. The onus Is on government to set In motion necessa ry machineries. for large scale rice culUvatlon .

MTh e task Is g rea t but It Is achi evab le. Govenunent must be able to stem the tide of rurall urban drtfi because rice pl"OC1:SSing Involves lot of ma.npower. If graduates are encouraged. they can go back to farming, - hc stated.

Mr Jethro Adenlyl. an agronomist. also stated

th a t gove rn ment h old the key to successfu l agri culture production In Nige ri a . He sa id If government provided necessary condition for the culllva Uon of rice. at least one million j obs will be crea ted because rice production Involves 101

of manpower. For him. the most Important fac tor Is the

availability of land to grow rice. -I a m not saying land Is not ava.llable to plan t r ice. but you cannot Just go to any available land and begin to plant crops. If you do thaI. you are gOing to face the wraUl of tile land owners. So. the s tarUng point Is th e cha nge of the eXiSting Lan d Act In the country so Ulat land would be readily available for pcople who want to grow crops.

MAHer this must have been done. govern men t must ensure that farm machineries are prOVided for fa rmers a nd ensure that fa rm Implements s uch as fertili ze rs ge t to Ule real farmers who plan I crops.

MFrom planting to the poin t of harvesting of rice. many hands are needed . Fo r In s la nce. after planting. unskilled labourers are s upposed to be deployed to the plantaUon to prevent bird [rom df!stroy lng the crop. HarvesUng th e rice paddlcs and polishing of nce are other stagf!s Ulat require great effort.-

He. h owever. gave th e warni ng that government shou ld be ca refu l In adopting a policy for the lransformatlon agenda for rice. He says. MOone a re th ose days when government would camp people at a rarm . This time around . gove rnme nt s hould realise that th ings have changed and Ulat they mus t make a policy Ulat Is In ta ndem with modernlsaUon.

For tile proposed ban to boost local production. the Federal Government must hands or Its control and Involvement In agriculture. This Is what a farm er. Engnlneer Reml Olanlyan . said Is Ule key. He asked . what buslnees has the Federal Government In agriculture? I mean. a farmer in the hinterland can sUIl afford to take the risk or tra vel ling to his sta te capital to lI ase with gOVf!rnmcnt bu t can he go as far as Abuja? Federal Governmen t s hould leave agriculture for state and local governmen ts where Ule fan m:rs reside.

He however added that the present Land Act ca n s till be ma in tai n ed beca use It Is s till work able .

- Additional reports by Johnson 8abajide and Clement Oko NnachL