ABUJA - The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Chief Charles Ugwu, says the Federal Government has earmarked N10 billion intervention fund for the local processing of rice.
He made this known yesterday in Abuja at the opening of the “National Dialogue on Rice Production: The Challenges of Sustainability,” under the auspices of NEPAD Nigeria.

Represented by Mr. Usman Gwandu, Director, Commodities, Ugwu said the measure was taken to reduce the impact of the high price of rice, and to enable Nigeria to become a net producer and exporter of rice.

The measure, he added, was aimed at improving the processing of rice to international and competitive standards, from its present status characterised by outdated technology, low productivity and high content of impurities.

Ugwu said the modalities for disbursing the fund were being worked out by the Bank of Industry.

He said government was working on the institution of integrated processing plants in all the rice producing areas of the country.

The minister said the implementation of the cluster strategy had been adopted as an industrial policy to fast-track the industrialisation of the country.

In his paper entitled: “Market Information System As A Tool For Rice Development In Nigeria,” Dr. Chuma Ezedinma, a market information expert, said the growth rate in domestic rice production was not encouraging.

He noted that Nigeria was one of the world’s largest importers of rice with an annual demand of more than five million tonnes.

“Between 1990 and 2002, we imported 5,132,616 tonnes of rice, and in 2002 alone, we imported 1,882 million tonnes of the commodity,” he said.

Ezedinma noted that the demand for local rice was far less than the imported one, while the local rice production cost was high and uncompetitive.

He stressed the need to improve post harvest quality of domestic rice, and called for investment in small and medium scale rice mills as well as businesses to sustain productivity, incomes and employment.

Ezedinma also called for intensified rice production and increased farm yield, to reduce production cost and encourage private sector service markets and land development.
“Human and institutional capacities must also be strengthened to produce, process and market rice competitively in Nigeria,” he added.

Alhaji Abubakar Wodi, President of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) told newsmen later that the country produced more than 10,000 tonnes of paddy annually.
He urged government to partner with RIFAN to exploit all avenues for the sustainable development of rice.