‘How best to sustain current rice momentum’

The Chairman of the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed Maifata, has suggested that two things must be done by the government to sustain the current drive for self-sufficiency in rice production.

In an interview with our Agric editor, Mifata, who is also the chairman of Umza Rice in Kano, said government must make sure they increase arable farmlands for paddy production.

‘’The land doesn’t belong to the people, it belongs to the government and the same government should find a way of making more arable lands available. Land clearing is very expensive for an ordinary person and so government should look into that aspect as well,’’ he suggested.

The second thing that must be done according to him is that government must rehabilitate the dams and other irrigation facilities that will guarantee dry season farming.

“Seventy percent of facilities are dilapidated and they all belong to government. So, government has to do something on it. You can’t talk about dry season farming without irrigation facilities. With these two things I suggested to the government, we are good to go,’’ he said.

On the complaint of inadequate paddy rice by his members, the chairman alleged that there were middlemen that buy up paddy from the farmers and hoard them.

“That is really affecting us because the paddy is not going to the right people. They hoard it and later sell it at a high price. No doubt about that, it is sabotage and it is only the government that can take care of that,’’ he said.

The chairman, who spoke on various issues affecting rice value chain, described farmers as kings and queens in their communities as they have started getting value for their efforts through appreciable price for their paddy rice.

“Let me congratulate them (rice farmers) because they are now the kings and queens of their villages and areas of living. Secondly, I advise them to persevere and continue as we are on the right track. They are not doing that only for themselves but for the whole country,’’ he advised.

In terms of milling capacity, that is purely investors’ cycle because once there are opportunities, the sky will be the limit for the investors as they can go to any extent to give you the best in terms of processing capacity.