By Modupe Gbadeyanka
**To Revive Rice Mills in Anambra
The federal government has promised to rehabilitate the rice farms/mills in Anambra State so as to improve the living standard of the people in the state and the region.
This promise was made by the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Mustapha Baba Shehuri, when he visited the rice mills in Omor and Umerum, located at Ayamelum Local Government Area of the state on Monday.
The mills were established by the federal government under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme 1(ATASP-1).
The Minister explained that the rice farms/mills were located in the state “because of the recognition of Anambra State as one of the major rice-producing states in the South-East zone” and to create jobs for the people.
He said the federal government is vigorously pursuing and implementing programmes to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production because of its strategic importance as a major staple food crop in achieving food and nutrition security, import substitution and promotion of inclusive economic growth.
According to him, rice farmers have been provided with agrochemicals, organic fertilisers, knapsack sprayers, planting & harvesting equipment such as reapers, mini combine harvesters, threshers at a subsidised rate to increase productivity.
Mr Shehuri said these interventions have increased the country’s rice production from 4.8 million metric tonnes in 2015 to over 6 million metric tonnes by 2019.
The Minister expressed optimism that the present production level will further rise because of the “provision of modern rice milling machines of various capacities per day (10 tonnes, 20 tonnes and 50 tonnes) with their accessories such as destoners, parboilers, dryers, colour sorters to small/medium scale processors, who currently produce the bulk of Nigeria rice to improve the quality of their output.
He said those given these facilities now annually produce over one million metric tonnes of rice of international standard.
“The Ministry has established 23 paddy aggregation centres nationwide to aggregate and store paddy. The centres were given to members of the Paddy Dealers Association of Nigeria (PRIDAN) under the public-private partnership arrangement,” he said.
