Rice Revolution And The Challenges Of Food Importation In Nigeria

By T.H Mayo

(Pics from Google)

In November 2017 president Buhari announced that illegal importation of food is considered a threat to national security. By this pronouncement, all land borders were closed and local production of rice was encouraging through loans to farmers and the provision of farming inputs and dry season farmers were given the necessary attention.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Nigeria is Africa's leading rice consumer and one of its largest rice producers.  It describes rice as an essential cash crop for Nigeria, with small scale farmers accounting for 80% of production but just 20% of consumption.

In one report produced by Bloomberg on Nigeria’s rice consumption and production says domestic demand for rice rose by 4% to hit 6.7 m tonnes during the 2017/2018 season. After many reports show that Nigeria imported 2.6 m tonnes of rice in 2017 along, the government of the country decided to curb rice importation and designed programs to ensure that things go well on the new move.

Some steps taking include restricting access to foreign exchange to importers among others. That idea helped, the importation has fallen from a high of 644,131 tonnes in 2015 to 20,000 tonnes in 2017, a decline of 95%.

(Pics from Google)

According to the federal ministry of agriculture, 12.2 million Nigerians engaged in rice farming, with processing activities undertaken at 1421 rice mills across the country. That given more Nigerians the advantage of consuming the locally produced rice which expert say is healthier and good for the economy.

Upon all this the successes recorded, the challenges of smuggling arose, a lot of awareness was created to make the citizens to patronized local rice was carried out. And the compliance is good.

(Pics from Google)

In four years many smugglers were arrested, goods intercepted, but the trend continues. The question is who is behind it and Why?

We are good with our rice, millions of jobs were created we cannot allow economic saboteurs to push us back. By statistics above everybody knew we are going somewhere green. Eat made in Nigeria to make Nigeria great again.