By Mercy Omoike
Lagos – Mrs Bosun Solarin, a rice farmer has urged Nigerian farmers to take advantage of the current border closure by increasing local production to meet rising demand.
Solarin, a member of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.
She said although local farmers may not meet increasing demand in the short run, they must strive hard to meet the demand in the long run.
“Nigerians should not expect miracle in three-months of the border closure but I believe that before next year’s Christmas, the price of rice would have crashed and there will be so much local rice in the market,” she said.
Solarin also commended government for its numerous support to rice farmers.
“There was an exhibition of a rice processing machine recently brought in by Nigerians in Diaspora, it is a modular machine that can process 101kg of rice in one hour.
“Individual farmers can easily afford this machine for rice processing and it comes with its own de-stoner and can be powered by a generator when there is no electricity power supply.
“With the influx of rice processing machines into the country at affordable prices to the local farmers, we will be able to overcome the challenges of stones in our local rice.
“With these machines we can remove the rice husk that the farmers can resell to poultry farmers and the bran can also be sold to pharmaceutical companies.
“However, we thank God for what government is doing to support local rice farmers since the border closure. The government is now paying more attention to rice farmers,” Solarin said.
She called on investors to take advantage of the border closure to invest in local rice cultivation to further boost production and create more jobs to ensure social security.
Also Alhaji Aminu Goroyo, RIFAN President, noted that local rice consumption has risen tremendously due to change in consumer preference from imported to local rice.
He said it was in the past that most Nigerians preferred imported rice brands as compared to local rice varieties, because then most Nigerian rice processors lacked adequate technology of rice processing to meet international standard.
Goronyo said this was because rice processing involved several steps which range from removal of the husks, milling the shelled rice to remove the bran layer, whitening step to de-stoners to remove stone content.
He highlighted that another improvement in rice processing in Nigeria was the drying process as the traditional sun drying has been replaced by mechanical and solar dryer for drying rice paddy.
Goronyo said Nigeria has become the highest rice producing country in West Africa.
“The increase in production and zeal for local consumption could be attributed to the ban imposed on rice import by President Mohammadu Buhari’s government and this restriction has been maintained with the border closure.
“Nigerian rice farmers have risen to the challenge of meeting domestic demand for the commodity and for rice production to be boosted, federal government is continuing with the Anchor Borrowers Programme and RIFAN has put in place strategies to monitor production,’’ he said.(NAN)
