By John Oba
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has stated that Nigeria would surpass its target to produce 22 million tonnes of additional food by 2015.
Adesina made this known on Friday during a media chat on `self-sufficiency in rice’ in Abuja.
“When we started in 2011, our aim was to produce additional 20 million tonnes of food to the existing production.
“As at the end of 2013, 17 million tonnes of additional food had been produced since 2011 and by 2015, 22 million tones of additional food would be produced’’, he said.
Adesina said Nigeria is now the reference point for agriculture on the continent as the country was rapidly closing food importation gap.
He observed that the impact of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) was noticeable as food import had drop by N2.5 billion in the last three years.
According to him, when ATA started in 2011, the land area for rice production was increased by 1.9 million hectares.
He said rice varieties known as faro 44 and 52 which was as good as the imported rice had been introduced to about six million local farmers.
Adesina said these varieties could give farmers five to six tonnes per hectare as to one to two tonnes per hectares hitherto produced by the local grain.
He said the ongoing revolution in the rice sub-sector was adding a lot to the domestic economy of rice producing states which had increased from10 at the start of the programme to 22 states today.
The minister noted that a total of N750 billion had been added to the economy the states and thousands of jobs had been created as youth no longer seek cheap temporal jobs during dry season.
Adesina said the ministry was working in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance to setup paddy rice bulky collection centres where there would be guaranteed price for the commodity.
He said that rice importers must produce or process rice locally before they would be allowed to import to meet the total demand of the country.
On the menace of rice smuggling in to the country, Adesina stressed the need to protect local farmers by effectively manning the boarders adding that Government was determined to cub the activities of saboteurs.
The minister attributed the successes recorded in the sub-sector to the support of President Goodluck Jonathan and the collaborative efforts of states Governments especially their contributions to the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme.
