Nigeria’s hope of rice sufficiency alive despite floods – Emir of Argungu

In this interview, the Emir of Argungu, Samaila Muhammad Mera, says despite the fact that Fadama rice farms in his domain were washed away by floods, hope is not lost as farmers anticipate bumper harvest during the next dry season farming.

Floods have destroyed a lot of rice farmlands in Kebbi State, what is the level of the destruction in Argungu Emirate?

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As of now, we have not completed gathering our data that will enable us have the statistics of the farmlands destroyed by the floods. But I can tell you the entire Fadama (wetland) where we have the bulk of rice production is lost to the flooding.

We have only few farmers that farm rice in the uplands of Argungu and Augie towns.

Considering the enormous losses in this year’s farming season, is Nigeria’s journey to self-sufficiency in rice production still on a smooth path?

I am sincerely worried; one, because our farmers have taken a lot of loans and there are also farmers that sold all they had harvested in the previous season and reinvested same in this season’s rice farming. Bulk of these loans was distributed to farmers by the giant rice milling companies, as well as medium and small scale milling enterprises. My heart goes out to these farmers that are indebted to these investors.

However, hope towards sufficiency in rice production is not lost. Our farmers experienced a similar situation in the past and they survived it. In 2013, when a similar flood disaster occurred, the state and the Federal Government supported the farmers with reasonable amounts of cash in order to pick up.

The farmers are looking forward to the same type of assistance from the government and well spirited individuals. I am confident that the farmers will bounce back stronger.

Flooding has become a recurrent issue in Kebbi State, what do you think is responsible for this?

Climate change is one of the reasons. We have more rainfall than we used to have in the past. We need to come up with a plan that can reduce runoff water during the rainy season that gets into the basins. Fadama is the lowest point where all the rain water drains into. Fadama is the most expensive estate we have around, as it is the most fertile part of the land for rice farming. The measure for mitigating the flood should be designed in such a manner that the rain water should be harvested upland; away from the Fadama. If the harvested water is dammed, it can be regulated – as per the amount of water that goes into the Fadama.

During dry season, the trapped water can also be used for irrigation, and that eliminates cost as it saves farmers from using water pumping machines for irrigation.

Recently, there was an up-shoot in the price of rice in the country, what do you think is responsible for that?

When there is an increase in demand, there is likelihood for the price of such commodity to increase. You can see now, many rice mills are coming up not only in Kebbi, but also in Sokoto, Zamfara, and of course in many other places. This increases demand and the farmer goes back home smiling. It is only the end consumer who does not go to the farm that groans as the price keeps increasing.

However, this will not continue forever as farmers make money in rice farming, many others will also join the farming family and by the time a sufficient quantity is produced the price will naturally come down.