Benue Governor says new rice policy underway

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has said that the new rice policy of the federal government to be released soon would rejuvenate local rice farming for maximum production in the country.
Ortom also said that the policy would check the sharp practices currently surrounding rice importation and assist government to conserve more foreign exchange for national development.
He added that the federal government would soon raise the tariff on rice importation in order to boost local production as a way of encouraging farmers in line with its thought to reengineer the agriculture sector of the country.
The governor spoke when officials of the of Nigeria/International Fund for Agricultural Development (FGN/IFAD), Value Chain Development Programme, (VCDP) led by the Country Programme Manager of IFAD, Atsuko Toda, visited his office in Makurdi.
Ortom, who expressed total commitment to partner IFAD to boost the local production of rice and cassava in the country, maintained that the state has the capacity not only to feed the nation but also Africa if given the needed support.
He urged the organisation to help the state government achieve its dream even as plans are underway to enable farmers delve fully into dry season farming because that is an area the state enjoyed comparative advantage over other states of the federation.
Earlier, the IFAD’s Country Programme Manager, Toda, disclosed that the organisation would key into the agricultural revolution of the Ortom’s administration to boost food production in the country. “Especially with the payment of your N87 million counterpart fund, we are prepared to match that fund by four to five times per annum so that Benue farmers can enjoy improvement in their value chain,” she said.
She added that IFAD has already targeted 15,000 farmer households in four local government areas of the state which include, Guma, Gwer, Okpokwu and Logo with the provision of improved farming inputs and also link producers to available markets.