FG sets up Paddy aggregation centers, boosts Anambra rice farms

The Minister of State, Agriculture and Rural Development, Hon. Mustapha Baba Shehuri has stated that the Federal Government Rice Farms in Anambra State will be  revitalized to boost rice production, create jobs  and also improve the living  standard of the people in the State and the region.

Shehuri said this on Monday, September 28, during his on the spot assessment of Federal  Government Rice Farms/ Mills  in Omor and Umerum, at Ayamelum Local Government Area.

Daily Times reports that the rice farms is under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme 1(ATASP-1).

Shehuri noted that, “ the present administration has provided various interventions to promote investment in the rice sector. As a result of these interventions, the country has increased its production from 4.8 million metric tons of milled rice in 2015 to over 6 million metric tons by 2019 with huge reduction in the nation’s deficit’’. 

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‘’ Some of the activities undertaken by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to develop the rice sector include the following: Provision of farm inputs such as agrochemicals, organic fertilizers, knapsack sprayers, planting & harvesting equipment such as reapers, mini combine harvesters, threshers at subsidized rate in order to increase productivity.

He added that ‘’the Provision of modern rice milling machines of various capacities per day (10tons, 20tons and 50tons) with their accessories such as destoners, parboilers, dryers, color sorters to small/medium scale processors who currently produce the bulk of Nigeria rice to improve the quality of their output, facilitated the establishment of 25 Nos. integrated rice mills by private investors nationwide so as to improve the quality of Nigeria milled rice to international standard and currently produce over one million metric tons of rice annually.

” the Ministry has established  23  Paddy Aggregation Centers nationwide to aggregate and store paddy. The centers were given to members of the Paddy Dealers Association of Nigeria (PRIDAN) under the public private partnership arrangement”.

‘’ there will be Dissemination of modern rice production and processing technologies through capacity building of farmers and processors directly and also in conjunction with the international donor agencies such as Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), German International Cooperation (GIZ), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Competitive Africa Rice Initiative (CARI), AfricaRice’’.

‘’ the Ministry is currently responding to the challenges of food availability posed by the COVID-19 pandemic by supporting smallholder farmers nationwide with various inputs including certified seeds of improved varieties of food crops such as rice, maize, sorghum, wheat, orange-flesh sweet potato, groundnut cowpea, soybean, yam, as well as cash crops like cashew, cocoa, sesame, oil palm, gum Arabic.

”Others include: herbicides, pesticides and agricultural machinery such as rice reapers, transplanters, power tillers motorized sprayers and processing equipment.

‘’these are expected to alleviate the effect of the pandemic on farmers and ensure that they keep producing food for the country’’.

The Minister informed that ‘’ this rice farm is sited here because of the recognition of Anambra State as one of the major rice producing States in the South East zone’’.

He thanked the Government of Anambra State for keying into the policies and programmes of the administration by promoting agriculture especially rice production and processing. He also appreciated Hon (Barr.) Vincent Ofumelu, for his passion and determination to improve the livelihood of his people.

In his remark, the House of Representative  member of Oyi /Ayamelum Constituency of the National Assembly, Hon. (Barr) Vicent Ofumelu Stated appealed to the Minister to use his good office to intervene in reviving the pumping Stations located in Ifite Ogwari and Umueje communities to boost rice production and increase the locally generated revenue of the people.