The Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) Lagos State Chapter has appealed to the federal and state governments to pay more attention to rice cultivation in the country for sufficiency in the produce.
The RIFAN’s chairman in Lagos State,Mr. Raphael Hunsa made the plea in an interview on Thursday in Lagos.
He said that the government must do more to become self-sufficient in rice production.
Hunsa said that inadequate support from both state and federal governments and a lack of modern mechanized equipment and manpower were affecting rice production in the country.
He said there was an urgent need for the government to focus on rice farmers by providing all necessary support, thereby encouraging them to increase production.
According to him, other countries like Indonesia, Pakistan, and India support their rice farmers with modern mechanized equipment and seedlings.
“The governments support them heavily, and that is why the farmers in those countries produce rice in large quantities.
“What is stopping us in Nigeria from producing rice sufficiently? We have the land, the weather, and human resources.
“What we are lacking is full commitment and investment in rice cultivation on the part of the government.
“Those countries that we are importing rice from, we can also do better than them if we get the right support.
“Nigeria can also export our local rice if the government concentrates and gives us all the needed support,” he said.
Hunsa urged investment in modern mechanized equipment that would make a difference in the sector, adding that a lack of modern equipment had discouraged many farmers from agriculture.
“We want the government to support us by providing all the equipment required for rice cultivation.
“We need to combine harvester, tractor, planter, and other modern machines that can move us forward and improve our rice production level.
“Without all these modern machines, we cannot achieve self-sufficiency in rice production. We cannot move forward if we remain in our local practice; we will just be producing for consumption.
Hunsa, however, said that due to the current situation, there might be insufficient rice during the Yuletide.
According to him, already, the Lagos state government has stated that it is coming to offtake our paddy rice for the Eko rice mill.
“The little we are producing, the government is ready to take it and from other farmers too.
“The rice in circulation won’t be enough, but we will manage it though it will be expensive,” he said.
Hunsa said that insufficient cultivation of rice was responsible for the hike in the price of the commodity across the country.
He said there is currently a shortage of rice farmers in the country due to a lack of modern mechanized equipment and insecurity.
“Rice farmers are not much; we are just educating and encouraging people to come into the value chain so that we can have more paddy and milling all-year-round.
2 Comments
I believe that the government is doing her best to encourage farmers have the best farming practices that will enhance productivity compared with foreign countries.
The last administration through various projects and programs e.g Appeals Project, CBN Farmers Anchor Program, Fadama Project to mentioned but a few did a lot to better farming activities and productivity in the country.
I would like to give kudos to Lagos Appeals Project which gave intervention to Rice Farmers in the state for the past five years in Land preparation , supply of seed, fertilizers, agrochemicals and Farm tools and machinery such as Swamp Rice Transplanters, hand and motorised sprayers, threshing machines etc to thousand of farmers throughout the state.
Infact Combined Harvesters were made available for Rice Farmers in the state..
This intervention started 2019 till date.
As the Project is supporting Rice Farmers, so,it was also supporting other food chains such as acquaculture and others.
We need to appreciate the government for the little they have done and encourage them to do more.
The question now is, did all the intervention result in increased productivity in Rice production in the state?
This is just one program. What about other projects and programs that support Rice production in the state.
We might encourage the government to improve on their performance but not totally condemning them as if they have not been doing anything to encourage and assist the farmers improve their lots.
We farmers have to show commitment in our attitude towards government intervention.
Some of us collect these inputs and vamos from the farm. What happened to the inputs collected.
My advice and suggestions are these:
Farming should be seen as vocation and be treated as such.So when support comes from the government,it should be given to practicing farmers and not political Farmers.
When planning for government intervention for farmers, the government officials should endeavor to involve farmers associations from the planing stage, this will help to identify the farmers needs and work towards such.
If our government can see to this rice farming production fully Nigeria can be the largest rice producer in West Africa because we all it take to produce rice but lack modern mechanized equipment. And without the real tools great job cannot be done.