The federal government has said it will leave no stone unturned in its quest to ensure Nigerians have enough nutritious food.
Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Hon. Mustapha Baba Shehuri, stated this yesterday at the launch of the National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS II) 2020-2030 and Competitive Africa Rice Platform (CARP) SRP Nigeria in Abuja.
The Minister said NRDS I which was used to develop the Rice Transformation Agenda under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda and Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) served as a catalyst for the commencement of the Rice revolution in the country.
According to him, the implementation of the NRDS I, began with the adoption of a Value Chain system as a holistic approach to transform the Rice sector in Nigeria. “This has helped the Government to provide enablers and support to Rice production, processing and marketing end to end,” he said.
“It encouraged a private sector-driven agriculture that started in 2011 as an adopted strategy of the Federal Government to reduce the huge import bill by accelerating paddy production, improve processing quality and promoting consumption of home grown rice.”
He said it was as a result of the successes achieved with NRDS I, that in the year 2020 , the National paddy production rose significantly towards the Rice self-sufficiency.
“As a result of this success, NRD I was reviewed to give rise to the formulation of a new NRDS document in 2021. This is the document that is being launched today.
“The NRDS II document is a ten-year plan which seeks to provide direction for the development of the rice subsector to achieve Government’s goals of self-sufficiency in Rice production, Food and Nutrition Security, Employment Creation and Production of surplus for export.
“The document was adopted at the 4th National Council of Agriculture (NCA) which was held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja in 2021 by all the Stakeholders with support from Competitive Africa Rice Platform (CARP).”
“It is my belief that in the next five to eight years, Nigeria should be producing over 30 million metric tonnes of rice annually.”
He thanked the German Cooperation Agency (GIZ), which he described as one of the major partners on agricultural development in Nigeria.
Earlier in his speech the Governor of Kebbi State, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu emphasised the need for cooporation to achieve food sufficiency globally.
He thanked the Japanese and German governments for collaborating with Nigeria to ensure the success of the National Rice Development Strategy. He also said there is need for countries of the world to work together to tackle global hunger.
In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Ernest Umakhihe, said the collaborative efforts of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and several development partners such as the German Cooperation Agency (GIZ), Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have yielded positive results on rice production and processing in Nigeria within the last decade.
According to him, “implementation of the first phase of the National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS- I) took place between 2009 and 2019. The outcome of the implementation recorded tremendous success such as increase in areas under cultivation, increase in quantity of paddy available to mills, proliferation of Integrated Rice Mills across the country and significant improvement in the quality/competitiveness of Nigerian Milled rice.”