Chairman of UMZA Farms and owner of Umza Rice Mill, producers of Sarauniyya Golden Rice brand in Kano, Alhaji Umar Abubakar, has said that with the current surge in the tempo of paddy rice production in the country, Nigeria has a good chance of becoming self-sufficient in rice production in less than four years from now.
He stated this recently while conducting journalists round his rice milling factory situated in Kwanan Dawaki in Dawakin Kudu local government, Kano state.
The Umza Farms chairman however stated that achieving complete self-sufficiency in rice production and exiting importation, presently draining the country of billions of scarce foreign exchange annually, will only happen if more Nigerians ventured into rice milling to raise the national rice milling capacity.
Disclosing that his mill, currently producing at 75% installed capacity, has a stockpile of about 100, 000 metric tons of paddy rice brought in from Kano, Jigawa, Taraba, Gombe and Adamawa States, Alhaji Umar Abubakar stated that working nearly 24 hours, 7 days a week, it would take up to end of July to finish milling the stockpile, by which time fresh harvests from the upcoming rain cultivation will start coming arriving. The rice miller put the price value of paddy stock in his mill at more than two billion naira, with the post-mil value potentially at nearly double the amount.
He also disclosed that to enter the consumer market with confidence and credibility, the company sent samples of its paddy as well as milled rice to the National Cereal Research Institute (NCRI) in Badegi, Niger state, for quality assurance tests and determination of the nutritional value. According to him, the test showed that the locally produced Nigerian long grain rice was far superior to the Thai and Indian long grain rice currently flooding the Nigerian market.
Alhaji Abubakar, therefore, called on Nigerian investors to venture into agribusiness, particularly cereals processing, assuring them of high returns on investment.
The minister of agriculture and rural development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, tasked the journalists to be pro-active in independently verifying claims made by people with vested interest in importing rice and other commodities into the Nigerian market, with a view to correctly enlightening members of the Nigerian public.
He said that those who peddle falsehood claiming that Nigerians cannot produce enough food, or that the quality of our own crops is lower are shipping jobs and wealth abroad while impoverishing our own people.
“The current government will not please anybody to hurt millions of Nigerians who government intends to help exit poverty and assure food security by creating jobs and wealth through agriculture. We must work hard and we will succeed. I can assure you that the next generation of millionaires and billionaires will emerge from agriculture”.
Also commenting, the minister of state for agriculture and rural development, Mrs. Asabe Asmau Ahmed, said the task of feeding Nigerians is not one Nigerians should leave to only government or farmers alone but a responsibility to be assumed by all. “With the huge parcels of arable land, water and other natural resources, we, Nigerians, will only be putting ourselves at the mercy of other less-endowed economies if you do not address the food question frontally”, she said.
