240m West Africans rely on imported rice – Sierra Leonean minister

By Agboola Bayo

Ibadan

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Food Security in Sierra Leone, Prof. Monty Jones, at the weekend alerted that no fewer than 240 million peoples in West Africa “now rely on imported rice as their primary source of food energy and protein.”
Jones raised the alarm in Ibadan while speaking on the theme “Conference on Food and Nutrition Security Futures” at the IITA headquarters, Ibadan, as part of the activities to mark the 50th anniversary of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
The Minister declared that “presently, West African countries are spending about $1 billion on importation of rice annually, while rice production in Africa is at the rate of six per cent per annum, the consumption level is at the rate of eight per cent per annum, thus creating the need for importing rice as a supplement.”
“Majority of West African peoples which accounts for about 240 million peoples rely deeply on rice as their primary source of food energy and protein in their diet. Rice is important to African countries because it is in the position as the third largest staple of food crop, particularly in West Africa, where the rice sector is the most important,” he said.
Speaking, the Chairman of the occasion and former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, advised IITA to, henceforth, make the outcome of its researches available for the poor farmers rather than keeping such away from the farmers that needed it.
“I want you to let your research output be useful more to the poor farmers rather than keeping it on yourself. Agriculture is, therefore, has the potential to drive economic development and wealth creation, and IITA has positioned itself as a key partner in the realisation of this vision for African Agriculture,” he said.

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