Nigeria Government Approves N13bn for Rice, Cassava Mills

The Federal Government has approved N13 billion for the procurement of 10 integrated rice mills and six high quality cassava flour mills to boost rice and cassava production in the country.

The government also approved N568 million for the award of contract for the procurement and construction of an additional transformer for the Maiduguri Substation.

Briefing journalists after the weekly federal executive council meeting, which was chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan, the Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina, said the rice mills will be located in 10 states of the federation.

The 10 rice mills have a capacity to mill 36,000 metric tons of paddy rice, making it a total of 360,000 metric tons of paddy rice to be finely processed across the country.

The rice mills will be located in Kebbi, Zamfara, Kaduna, Ogun, Bayelsa, Niger, Kogi, Anambra, Benue and Bauchi States, while the cassava mills will be located in Ondo, Ogun, Abia, Delta, Cross River, Nasarawa states.

Mr. Adesina said the council deliberated extensively on the need for more integrated rice mills across the country as it is currently working at the total blackout of the importation of rice.

The Looming Food Scarcity

If the government wants to tackle the looming scarcity headlong, it should not pay lip service to it. So far, the Federal Government has demonstrated a high level of commitment on the issue of floods that have taken over various parts of the country in recent times. By now, there should be a workable master-plan on how to grow our food crops in Nigeria to cater for our citizens. However, one point still remains valid -- we are not fully exploiting the vast agricultural potential of the country. The minister of agriculture should begin to set up strategy on how to ensure stable supply of grains to farmers who are not affected by the floods. He should also begin to see the need to encourage more commercial farmers to go into increased food production. He should schedule town hall meetings with all Nigerian commercial farmers where opinions can be sought on the way forward for affected farmers. Some of us have criticized the Federal Government's budget allocation for agriculture in 2013. Nevertheless, if well-managed, the money can turn around the agricultural sector within the first half of 2013 through improved investment in arable farming. Some of the N17.4 billion intervention fund announced by President Goodluck Jonathan should be properly distributed to commercial farmers that have suffered so much in the course of the disaster. Importation should be a secondary option in the wake of the food crisis that is looming in our country. This is a clarion call for our leaders to encourage our people to produce our food crops locally for consumption and export purposes. It is about time we began to take practical steps in combating the "sit-down-look" syndrome that has eaten deep into our governance.