Rice farmers under the aegis of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) have launched of the one million bags of rice paddy stacked as pyramids in Abuja.
The farmers said this will crash the
price of rice in the market as soon as the rice paddy are being processed in no
distant time as the rice paddy will be allocated to the processors for
processing, and then will be subsequently sold at discounted prices.
According to report by News Agency
of Nigeria, this was made known on Tuesday in Abuja by the Chairman, Pyramid
Sub Committee of RIFAN, Mr Shehu Muazu, who said that the rice pyramid would
show that local production of food is possible.
Mr. Muazu said that immediately
after the unveiling of the pyramid, the CBN and RIFAN will allocate the rice to
the processors.
“RIFAN in collaboration with the Rice Millers
Association of Nigeria will process the rice and sell at a discounted price.
This will lead to drastic reduction in price once it starts rolling into the
market.
“Our collaboration with the millers association rests
on the agreement that they will sell at a discounted price to Nigerians.
“Although, we cannot talk of price in isolation as
far as prices all over the world are concerned because all over the world
prices of food have gone up.
“But the good news is that rice will remain the
cheapest commodity as far as food is concerned due to the success recorded
through the scheme.’’
He also pointed out that the Anchor
Borrowers Programme (ABP) which was designed to assist small scale farmers is a
proof of President Muhammdu Buhari led federal government’s efforts in making
Nigeria self-sufficient in rice production and in tackling food insecurity.
“We have over one million bags of paddy rice which
were collected from the beneficiaries of the ABP under the business strategy
partnership. Benefiting farmers who received the loan, which came in the form
of farm inputs and cash, repay with rice paddy of same value.
“The significance of this rice pyramid is to
showcase the achievement of government as far as agriculture is concerned and
to call on Nigerian corporations to queue into investments in agriculture. If
the poor Nigerian farmers can do this then the rich people can do more than
this.’’
The Abuja rice pyramid is a product
of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, financed by Anchor Borrowers Programme
of CBN. The CBN stated that the ABP, since its inauguration in November 2015,
had increased the average yield of rice per hectare from 1.8 metric tonnes to
five metric tonnes, while discouraging importation of the commodity
Business Compiler had earlier
reported that President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to unveil the CBN mega
Rice Pyramids in Abuja. The mega rice pyramids project, which has been
described as the largest in the world, is a collaboration of the CBN with the
Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN).
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