No doubt, rice is a major staple food in Nigeria.
Over the years, successive governments have evolved
different policies on the importation of the item.
A Professor of Agronomy in the Department of Crop Physiology and Crop Production, College of Plant Science and Crop Production (COLPLANT), Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State, Professor Kehinde Okeleye, has lent his support for government’s policy banning the importation of rice, stressing that the country does not have any business importing rice.
For the University Don, who is also the immediate past Vice-Chancellor, Crescent University, Abeokuta, Ogun State, said “I disagree with the assertion that the Federal Government was hasty to ban the importation of rice because if the Federal Government had not done this the nation would not move”. Professor Okeleye, who noted that it was high time the country moved out of its comfort zone of depending on importation to production, stating that it was the Federal Government’s policy that encouraged the collaboration between Lagos and Kebbi states that brought about what is known as the Lake Rice.
The Professor of Agronomy, whose research work centres on cropping system, food crops as primary interest, has worked in the areas of the basic food security crops in Nigeria like maize, cowpea, cassava and rice, saying he had concentrated more on rice because of the challenging
issues surrounding it. “Apart from cowpea and cassava, the nation spends a lot of money importing maize and rice.
Only recently, it was said that the nation imported about 1.7 trillion naira worth of rice and one would wonder why it has to be so. So, my primary interest has been in solving some of the problems relating to the production of these crops.
Assuring that all hope was not lost for the country, Professor Okeleye stated that Nigeria can meet the short-fall in the production of rice if rice farmers would adapt the findings from his research. “From some of my own research, do you know that the basic yield of a normal rice variety that we cultivate has moved from 1.0 tons in the upland to 2 to 2.5 tons per hectare and of course, we have the lowlands and there are varieties that can give as much as four to five tons per hectare. You can imagine one ton now moving to five tons as a result of improvement in varieties and production practices that will do better now that rice improvement has gone into crossing breeding of top yielding Asian rice
with the indigenous West African rice, giving you the rice which has specific hybrid called NERICA (New Rice for Africa), which has now been further improved to ARICA (Advanced Rice for Africa).
Speaking on other agronomic practices that he had been able to work on, the University Don said he had looked into the causes of poor yield, which he attributed to the soil, which are highly degraded and nutritionally- poorly with low nitrogen in the soils. According to him, “the nutrition status of almost all of our soil is poor and that has been a major limitation to grain yield. Apart from the fertility level, pests and diseases are also a major cause for concern but with improvement in breeding, the issues of pests and diseases have more or less been controlled. There are now a lot of varieties that are pest tolerant and disease resistant.
Professor Okeleye pointed out that a major limitation in the adoption of the research knowledge is that of poor extension services. According to him, extension activities in the country are poor, as research
breakthroughs that ought to be transferred to farmers, do not get to them adequately.
The University Don said that through collaboration with the Africa Rice Centre, two PhD students were funded on some extension work in the Northern Guinea Savanna and the Southern Guinea Savanna belts of Nigeria. But that was not enough to get the findings to enough farmers because the more the technology gets to the farmers, the more it can be practiced and the more people can be aware that these things can be done and thereby, reduce the cost of importation.
Highlighting some challenges being faced during the course of his research activities, Professor Okeleye said they include the problem of funding and lack of equipment and field-support facilities. He, however, said he did not allow such to deter him in his research activities, as he called on upcoming researchers to be focused and strive to contribute their quota into making Nigeria great. Certainly, Professor Okeleye has greatly offered useful information on how rice production can be enhanced. Meanwhile, other critical factors that should be emphasised are funding access and the need for consistency in public policies. We should also never forget to realise that no matter how laudable a project or programme may be, sustainability is key. For me, compliance with public policy is an impetus to how Nigeria can truly be self-reliant in rice cultivation, agricultural production and ensuring food security.
