He noted that the farm has now acquired some degree of sophiscation and has employed a large number of farmers to grow rice for supply directly to the local market: "We are trying to put up a plant of rice mill whereby we will be taking the rice directly from our farm, from our out-growers and then mill it in our rice mill in a good manner where you have brand name, good packaging and we have all the machineries on ground - destoners, socket machine, etc."
Rabiu stated that the business prospects for supplying the local market are strong, with rice now a staple food in Nigeria. He did however add that one problem is "the indiscriminate importation from our ports and illegal smuggling of rice from our borders which are porous - Benin, Chad, Niger, etc, that is actually affecting the business seriously."
"Apart from indiscriminate importation and illegal smuggling, there is the quality of rice to deal with. Right now, the local rice we produce tend to have some stones and are not well cleaned; as we may have, when our factory comes into full production capacity. The actual problem we are facing now is the importation and smuggling which is actually dumping the rice in the Nigerian market and thereby bringing down the price of the local products whereby an investor cannot break even." He went on: "The quality of the rice is poor because the production process is not fully mechanised; that is why we are going into rice milling."
On policy direction from the government, put in place to assist rice farmers, he said the challenges farmers in the rice sector have to face is that they are lacking "is consistent government policy in the rice sector. A lot of people have invested so much money in mills when the previous government wanted to have good policy, but lately just before the end of that regime, the policy changed and the whole thing was so discouraging to investors," he emphasised, adding: "But if we could have a consistent government policy definitely we can do magic in Nigeria when it comes to the rice sector."
The factory will come on stream early next year: "Then we will start with the local market to establish our brand name and then we will delve into the ECOWAS market."
Source: Vanguard
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