The Acting Director, Corporate Communication, CBN, Mr Isaac
Okoroafor, has disclosed that before the end of 2017, Nigeria will begin to
export rice to other countries.
He made the declaration during a sensitisation and awareness
programme for farmers in Bayelsa State on the apex bank’s Anchor
Borrowers’ Programme.
Okoroafor said the CBN’s anchors borrower programme has
started yielding fruits, insisting that with the progress so far made by the
CBN through its agricultural financing policies, the country would begin to
export rice by 2017.
He said that the harvest in rice in 2016 has already
exceeded the earlier projections, noting that if the tempo is sustained,
Nigeria would not only meet its national demands but would export to other
countries.
Okoroafor said, “We started a pilot programme in Kebbi State
with 78,000 farmers, cultivating an average of one hectare and that was when
President Muhammadu Buhari launched the programme in March last year.
“The programme was to enable farmers to plant three times in
the year – two dry seasons cropping and one rainy season cropping. I am telling
you now that Kebbi State has exceeded one million tonnes of rice.
“Not only Kebbi, Ebonyi State has keyed into it.
“We were there last week and Ebonyi is to give us over
1.2million tonnes of rice in one year. They are harvesting now, they are
bagging and they are milling. Nigerians are booking their Christmas rice in
Abakaliki.
“Abia State has ordered rice from Ebonyi State Government.
Other states are keying in. In Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto, Cross River, rice is
coming up.
“Nigerians are planting rice, producing rice. You need to
taste Nigerian rice, it is fresh. Not the nine-year-old rice from Vietnam,
Thailand and India. Let us feed ourselves. Our rice is healthier, it is not
preserved with chemicals.
“We have been to Anambra, Niger, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto,
Cross River and Ebonyi just to ensure that this is not another talk show. We
have seen harvest of rice which brought me to say that the harvest in rice for
this year has so far exceeded our projections.
“By the end of 2017, Nigeria will not only meet our national
demands which is between six and seven tonnes per year, but we will exceed it.”
Okoroafor urged the people of Bayelsa to look beyond oil,
saying that the state was capable of feeding the country.
Compiled by UkrAgroConsult
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