With the World Bank’s support for the FADAMA project to increase local capacity, the importation of rice, a staple food in Nigeria may be a thing of the past.
It was the immediate past Minister for Agriculture, who is now the President, African Development Bank (ADB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who told Nigerians that about N30 billion have been lost by Nigeria due to abuse and lack of transparency in import waivers on rice importation. That naturally set the ball rolling for a total revamp of that sector of the economy.
The Senate then followed up by asking the Central Bank of Nigeria to collaborate with the Nigerian Customs Service to retrieve the N30 billion from the importers who are said to have manipulated due process and evaded the payment of importation duty.
What led to the waiver scandal was the inability of Nigerian rice farmers to meet local demand for the staple food. Rice could be said to be the most consumed staple food in Nigeria today. It is estimated that about N1 billion worth of rice is consumed daily in Nigeria, and a majority of that is derived from imports.
The rice import bill for Nigeria, which was N123.61 million in 1980, rose to N9.72 billion in the year 2000. In 2002, Nigeria even ranked among the top six largest world rice importers with total milled rice import put at 1,251,718 tonnes.
There is no doubt that such huge level of demand provides immense opportunities for the production of rice and other activities along its value chain. This was the opportunities that foreign countries producing rice have seen and which informed the off-loading of rice from their stores into the country, what Dr. Adesina described as “rice that has spent decades in the strategic grain reserve of these countries and that is not even fit for animal consumption.”
Adesina has been vociferous in his campaign that locally produced rice is more nutritious.
It was therefore a pleasant step in the right direction when the World Bank, through FADAMA, identified rice as a priority staple food for support under the $200 million FADAMA III Additional Financing (AF), which is aimed, among others at ramping up production and increasing income of farmers operating within the catchment of the selected States and other production areas engaged in priority staple foods, namely rice, cassava, sorghum, and horticulture in Kogi, Kano, Lagos, Niger, Enugu and Anambra States.
The details of the implementation arrangement are outlined in the amended Subsidiary Agreement of the Parent Project satisfactory in form and substance to the Association. The amended Subsidiary Agreement has to be executed on behalf of the Recipient and the Participating State concerned, as a condition of disbursement of additional finance in respect of activities taking place in that those State.
Lagos State has been selected for rice production under the current project because of the success stories of FADAMA parent projects in the state.
The cooperation of the state government in prompt payment of its counterpart funding of the projects, and the establishment of Eko Rice Mills by the state government at Imota-Ikorodu with a capacity of 20, 000 metric tons per annum made that happened.
For instance, about 400 farmers are presently being prepared for the rice planting season in Lagos State under the FADAMA III Additional Finance Project for which the Federal and Lagos State Governments recently signed a $25 million agreement.
Lagos State has a huge market, not only because of its daily increasing population, but also because the States of South West rely mainly on the Lagos market for the sales and purchase of agricultural produce. It is therefore the commendable foresight of the World Bank and the Federal Government to have picked Lagos State for this special support.
A visit to the Imota factory of Eko Rice Mills, which is producing unpolished rice revealed state-of-the-art equipment in a hygiene and safety-conscious environment. The rice being produced is very nutritious and is packed in bags of five, 25 and 50 killogrammes. The mill is presently sourcing materials/paddy from two farm sites in Toga, Badagry and Itokin, all in Lagos State.
The AF, apart from boosting production and raising income of farmers, is also creating employment in Lagos and neighbouring States. For example, a 10, 000 hectares of land has been acquired in Ogun State for rice farming to feed the Eko Rice Mills.
The Lagos State Government has also introduced Rice-for-Job Programme, which is a sort of empowerment programmes for youths who are encouraged to go into rice farming.
Every year, according to the Management Information System Officer for State FADAMA Office in Lagos, Mr. Oladipo Azeez, the youths are trained in rice production and at the end of the training they are supported by FADAMA with technical and financial aids, and advisory services to go into rice production and to start their own farm. About 3, 000 youths participate in the programme, while rice plantations have been established in Itokin, Egua, Imota and Badagry on the basis of one hectare of land per farmer.
The Eko Rice Mills, manned by Nigerian Engineers, has been enjoying the yearly patronage of the Lagos State Government, especially during festive periods. The patronages from other individuals and organisations have increased tremendously, as the people have been educated and informed that locally produced rice is more nutritious, better and even cheaper than the imported rice.
Mr. Azeez remarked: "we don’t even know how many years the imported rice has spent in their stores and how many months on the sea before getting to our markets and finally the consumers. Our own rice here is farm-fresh. This is last year’s harvest.”
For example, the quality of a pack 500g of imported rice bought from one of the stores, when tested, was below that of Eko Rice Mills, and worse still, it was sold for N1, 500, whereas the 5kg pack of Eko Rice goes for N1, 000. So, it does make a lot of economic sense to grow, patronize and consume local rice, just as FADAMA III Additional Financing for Lagos rice farmers makes a lot of development sense.
On the success of FADAMA III, the FADAMA state coordinator, Foluso Ajijola, noted that many projects were started and completed.
“Farmers were supported in the acquisition of productive assets and in their production lines. Equipment for fisheries, livestock, and crops were purchased to increase farmers’ activities and income.
“Furthermore, fishing equipment, boats and engines were provided for fish farmers to be able to go to high sea fir fishing, while many of the groups acquired cold rooms to store and preserve their fishes. One of them is the five tons cold room of Agbelere FCA in Eti Osa LG. We also have in Epe and other parts, while butchers have also been assisted with cold rooms and market reconstruction,” he said.
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