Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Kano chapter, has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria not to heed to the call for the reopening of the country’s borders for rice importation.
The association said heeding to the call would be suicidal to the nation’s economy.
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The Kano State RIFAN chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Haruna Aliyu, made the call during a media chat in Kano.
According to him, only people with ill-feelings towards the achievement so far recorded by the present administration would make such suggestions.
He added that the recently recorded increase in price of paddy in the country has been attributed to some middlemen who created an artificial paddy scarcity in the nation.
“Rice farmers produced a reasonable quantity of paddy during the last dry season, but there are some financially viable middlemen who neither grow nor mill rice but they are buying and hoarding paddy.
“They have big warehouses stocked with paddy thereby creating an artificial scarcity in the market which resulted in the hike of rice price,” he said.
Aliyu added that a report reaching the RIFAN office showed that the middlemen are currently buying rice plantations from farmers as they couldn’t wait till harvest time.
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