Sustain Buhari’s policy on food production, rice processors urge Tinubu

The Rice Processors Association of Nigeria (RIPAN) has called on the President-elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu, to sustain ongoing initiatives on food production for economic development.

The Director-General of RIPAN, Mr Andy Ekwelem, made the call on Tuesday in Abuja at a news conference.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the conference was “Strategies for Deepening and Strengthening the Nigeria Rice Sub-Sector towards More Sustainable Development.

According to Ekwelem, RIPAN is an association of investors in integrated rice processing, formed as a direct response to the Federal Government of Nigeria’s deliberate initiative to grow local capacity in rice.

“Members of the association and indeed other actors in the rice processing and milling sub-sector are presently key players and major contributors to the growth of the Nigerian economy.

“Our processing and milling activities contribute several thousands of direct employments and millions of indirect employments to the various stakeholders in the rice value chain and other complementary sectors, ” he said.

He said that the rice industry was the single largest employer of labour in Nigeria, providing jobs for over 13 million people.

“These include direct staff, casual worker, haulage service providers, agrochemical and input suppliers and of course millions of small holder rural farmers who are made up of majorly youths and women,” he said.

According to him, the Nigeria rice industry has enjoyed considerable support from the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Before the current administration, Nigeria officially allowed imported rice into the country.

“As at the last quarter of 2014, official rice import into Nigeria from Thailand was about 1.24 million tonnes of rice; by the end of 2015, these imports had dropped to about 644,131meric tonnes, and by the end of 2016, it dropped to 58,260 metric tonnes.

“In 2017, the imports further dropped to 23,192 metric tonnes but by 2022, it dropped to an alltime minimal of 438MT.

“The reason for the drops –which to us at RIPAN is a very positive development – is nothing more than Mr President’s hard stand approach against food importation,” he said.

He commended Buhari for his agricultural development initiatives that had boosted food production over the years.

“Recall that President Buhari is a strong advocate of “grow what you eat and eat what you can grow”.

“To ensure that he walked his talk, through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), he launched various programmes that encouraged local production and processing of rice.

” Programme such as the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, the Paddy Aggregation Scheme, the Private Sector-Led Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme and the Real Sector Support Facility (RSSF) were floated.

“They where deliberate strategies that encouraged indigenous and foreign business concerns to invest massively in the rice value chain.

“Today, Nigeria boasts of over 100 large-scale integrated rice processing facilities scattered across the country.

“This is more than 700 per cent increase from the mere 13 integrated mills operating in the country between 2010 and 2014,”