The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has said revamping agriculture and its value-chain is one of the giant strides of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
The minister stated this on Monday in Dutse at the Special Town Hall Meeting on agriculture organised by his ministry in collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA).
According to him, the ongoing revolution in the rice production in the country is a testimony, saying that by September 2017, rice importation had fallen to a 22,000 MT, translating to over 90 per cent drop.
“The reduction is due to concerted efforts by the Ministry of Agriculture and the interventions of the Central Bank of Nigeria,” he said.
The minister, however, recalled the purported report on 2018 Nigeria’s rice importation by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) World Markets and Trade Report.
“Nigerians should see the recent fake news that Nigeria imported 400,000 metric tonnes more than the quantity of rice imported in 2017.
“The report, quoting the 2018 United States Department of Agriculture World Markets and Trade Report, also posited that Nigeria’s local rice production is dropping.
“When the figures were challenged, they said it was based on the assumptions -unrealistic as they were – such as satellite mapping of farms, expected demand by politicians for election campaigns and expected losses from flooding.
“Fortunately, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has debunked this report, saying the volume of rice importation into Nigeria (in metric tonnes) declined drastically in 2018,” he said.
The minister said that the figures obtained from India and Thailand, both dominant rice exporters to Nigeria, indicated that as at September, Thailand had so far exported about 5,161 metric tonnes of rice to Nigeria.
He said on its part, India sold only 426 MT to the country as at July.
On his part, the Governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele, represented by Mr Olatunde Akande, his Special Adviser, said there was over 60 per cent reduction in the importation of rice, sugar, milk, sorghum and tomato between 2013 and 2017.
Specifically, he said about 1.424 billion dollars was spent in importing the five items in 2013 while only about 628.6 million dollars was used for their importation in 2017.
The CBN governor also disclosed that the bank had disbursed N160 billion to 850,000 smallholder farmers under the Federal Government’s Anchor Borrowers Programme.
He said the bank also intervened in food programme, Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme, Paddy Aggregation Scheme and Fertiliser programme.
