We will establish rice mega city per LG in Ebonyi – Gov. Umahi

Ebonyi State is known for its solid minerals and rice production in the country. The Governor, Mr. David Nweke Umahi, recently spoke with some journalists in his office in Abakaliki on his plans for agriculture with eyes on Rice and Yams production to earn foreign exchange for the state and Nigeria at large. TOM OKPE was there for The Daily Times.

Looking at the initiative you put in place, especially on the anchor borrower scheme, how is this initiative impacting on rice production in Ebonyi State and what inspired you to focus more on agriculture?
We are known for solid mineral and agriculture and we don’t have any other means of raising our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) other than agriculture and solid minerals and of course, the export of our human resources. So, this is the reason that made us focus on these areas that we have comparative advantage over other states.

In the past two years of your administration, what would you say is your major achievements on rice production?
I must commend the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh very highly based on the program he initiated and supported by His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari and as a state, we wish him quick recovery. He has done very well in terms of agricultural program for the state and the nation at large. Let me point out that, the program in agriculture has brought down the demand of Foreign Exchange because prior to this administration we import a lot of food items into the country and the dollar was rising to N500-N600 but when the Federal Government launched its program on agriculture, the demand for forex began to go down.
Again, I must commend the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele and I must also commend the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun and of course the Chief of Staff, they have put their programs together and the states are very well positioned to do better in agriculture. I can say that in the area of rice production and with the support from the Federal Government and their initiatives in a number of ways to better agriculture, we have done well. We have been able to encourage farmers, we have been able to demonstrate that one hectare of land when you cultivate it and plant rice, it is better than being a councilor or being a commissioner, you make more money. We have been able to improve on our agriculture production and processing capacity, especially on rice production in Ebonyi state. Therefore, we launched One-man One-hectare in Ebonyi State and that has really encouraged our people.
We have also borrowed N2billion from the Federal Government to boost agriculture in the state and we would be paying off that aspect of the loan in the next three months. Of course, we have borrowed another N5billion and another N3bilion because we want to domesticate rice production in Ebonyi State. We are going beyond individual production and we are now beginning to see how we can institute what we call Rice Mega City in each local government whereby, we have 5000 hectares of land dedicated for rice production in each local government areas of the state. Already we have four rice mills that are in operation and of course, you have also seen the private people that are milling with their traditional machines. We have imported another three sets of rice mill which will be fully installed in the next three to four months. The idea is that, before the middle of next year we will be able to have one rice mill in each local government area. We have introduced the system of standardisation in terms of pricing and in terms of quality, so that when you have paddy rice to sell, you have to come to our buying Centre at the local governments so that we would be able to weigh the rice and be able to know how much you will be paid for so that we can have a particular brand to know if it is Faro 50, or Faro 44 or Faro 52. Then we have prices for them, but there should be a uniform price for the state and for a particular quality of milled rice, we also have a uniform price for it. This is to enable the state monitor the quality of our rice. We are known all over the world for the quality of our Abakaliki Rice, so we are very proud of our rice quality and we want to be sure that we maintain that standard and that rating.

One of the things that characterised us as a nation is policy somersault, are you not worried that after your regime, your successor may reverse this policy, what structure did you put in place to ensure sustainability of these programs you have introduced?
Like the rice mega city, it is only going to be powered by government, but would not be manage by government and we are trying to establish a law now, if you want to acquire 5000 hectare of land to farm, we have a law coming up whereby the owners of land would aggregate to form cooperative society. For instance, you have two hectares and we have three hectares or ten hectares, we aggregate them, each farm holder would become a shareholder by reason of the percentage of farmland he has in the entire 5000 hectares of land. So what are we doing? We want to mechanise agriculture so that the traditional means of rice planting and harvesting can be improved upon and then the law would be such that the owners would have 10perecent equity stake of investment; they would have nothing else to invest other than being the owners of the land and the state would also have 10percent being the father of the land and of course the custodian of the land constitutionally. These cooperative societies would also work in the farm; you won’t see the role of government in these activities. Therefore, it is not a question of policy review by succeeding government, no. They will pay taxes to government and it is not going to be dependent on government policy. The same thing we are doing in solid minerals, very soon you can’t establish a cement factory or even quarry without the community having equity share and it is very important to our country, because I have continued to say, if you want to establish for example some factories that are based in solid minerals and you tell us that we are going to collect tax or you will employ our people, what is the salary range of the employment or the volume of tax you will pay?
In Ebonyi State, 10 percent of its land is solid minerals and so if you now excavate and dispossess us of agricultural programs over these lands and then you compare how much we would have been making in agriculture and compare it with the tax, you will find out that the state is actually loosing. The best thing is for us to have equity in that program and I recommend this to the Federal Government. Let investors come in but let the owners of the place or land have equity in the business or whatever business that is being done. I think the Petroleum Industry Bill is considering such so that the oil producing communities would be part of the business in terms of benefit because their land is being damaged and dispossessed. If the land is not damaged, then they should be able to use it for other economic benefits.
******What is your administration’s target for rice production in the state?
Our target is 100,000 hectares of land cultivation within the next few years.
******How many metric tons?
If you multiply 100,000 hectares by four metric tons per hectare, we would be talking about 400,000 metric tons of paddies. But with the improvement as we are being mechanised, we could have as much as five to seven metric tons per hectares

With what you have enumerated, it means in the next few years Ebonyi State would have gone wide in rice production, are you thinking of going to the international markets?
We are already at the international market, because some people are eating Ebonyi rice abroad and they call us and say this is special. Also, don’t forget that God gives his gift differently. Sometimes, the rice is salted, taste differently if you taste it, you would not eat any other rice again. And it is very common among the top echelon in our society, because they eat it and testify to it and that is what we want to do so that they will do the marketing for us. So I can say that we are already there at the international market. But the local consumption and our neighboring West Africa countries are also an issue because they come in here in their numbers to buy this rice.

Sometime last year, you introduced a policy that abolished selling of foreign rice in Ebonyi State, how has this policy helped in improving rice production and patronage of the local rice?
This is a question that has an answer herein. Of course, we banned the selling of foreign rice here and if you want to import, we would want to see your import license, your duty paid, and we will also see your source to be sure that it is not plastic rice. These are the issues and every state has a right to ask those questions. Through the program of the Federal Government; the farmers get more money, the farmers have confidence in the system, and because they produced the rice and the rice are bought, they are more engaged in doing that which is important for us.

The issue of smuggling is a huge challenge considering the fact that you are putting modalities in place to protect your farmers so that they can sell when they produce, what is the best way you think the Federal Government should take in tackling the issue of rice smuggling in the country?
I don’t believe that this is a problem, I don’t believe that. Sometime, Federal Government doesn’t want to act because if you look over there you will find out that I am seeing everything that is happening over there at the university, I am seeing the section of the road where we have problems that they are escalating our streets cables. So, what is the problem of sitting in one place, and then have these CCTV in some of the flash points around the boarder locations. Government can even install CCTV that people can hardly notice; it can be a wireless one, place it in a tree and get some customs officials that are retired, form them into a committee to mount these boarders and they will do very well. So it is a question of interest that is why we still have smuggled rice. But the customs can also go into the market and ask the rice sellers to show the duty they paid for those imported rice, they have the right to do that unless we are not able to feed our people.
When this argument came, we argued extensively. I am a member of the zero hunger and I am also a member of the presidential Taskforce on food initiative, so the issue came up and we were lobbied to allow importation of rice of a certain percentage and we said no. They said there was no rice in the state and I said let the security agents go through all the rice locations where they are milling so we can find out whether there is any particular day that we have more customers than supplies. And nobody is able to prove that which means that what we produced is able to sustain the nation. So there shouldn’t be this smuggling. We also found out that Nigeria is one of the few countries that have parboiled rice and when you have a rice that is not parboiled, the highest it will stay is about six months, it will all become chaff and dangerous to health. And you can see the increase in cancer, increase in kidney failure, increase in liver and all sorts of illnesses. It’s a result of all this importation of expired rice. Most of the things imported are expired, we have proven that some rice is plastic rice and we have seen some apples that are coated with wax. So these are dangerous things that are impacting negatively on our health. Therefore, I support every measure that could be taken to stop smuggling.

Ebonyi State is known for yam farming; the Federal Government has launched the exportation of yam to foreign countries, do you support this yam policy and what would your administration do to encourage yam farming in the state to meet the export demand?
We have Special Adviser on Cassava and Maize, so we want to add that responsibility to him. Our yam is the biggest and the sweetest in the whole country, so I have discussed with the Minister of Agriculture and we have agreed to have certifications for our yam and when that is done, in the next dry season, you will see containers of yams being exported from Ebonyi State.

What is your policy on women empowerment in agriculture?
We have 4000 women and youths that we set aside N1billion for them to come and access; and it takes roughly N100, 000 to cultivate and plant one hectare of land. We want people to be involved, and they should be able to work between 2 to 4 years and we have given these participants N250, 000 grant interest free for them to use and participate in agriculture. On May 29, 2017 we empowered about 2000 widows with N100, 000 each for them to participate in agriculture. So these are the things we have been doing in Ebonyi State. Therefore, the women are more empowered than the men in Ebonyi State and by next year we want to see how we can empower the Army Wives including police and civil Defense wives so that we can improve and feed ourselves.

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