FG To Support Irrigated Rice Farming ABUJA - The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to support the cultivation of dry season irrigated rice across the 10 states of the North West, North East and North Central regions of the country. The states are: Kebbi, Sokoto, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Niger, Kogi, Zamfara and Katsina. Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, made this known at the 2013 Ministerial Platform in Abuja on Friday. The platform is a mid-term report on the progress and achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. “To augment the production of rice, giving rising demand for paddy as the number of mills expanded, government launched a “double-up paddy production programme’’ to grow rice in dry season,’’ he said He said 267,491 farmers from these leading rice producing states received free 50 kilogramme of seeds, two bags of NPK fertiliser and one bag of Urea fertiliser free of charge. He added that the farmers were also assisted with water pumps to bring water to their fields. Adesina pointed out that the dry season accelerated rice production drive would produce 1. 07 tonnes of paddy, enough to keep 20 integrated mills running till 2013 crop harvest. He said that the Federal Government had raised the incentives for domestic milling of locally produced paddy rice. The minister said that 14 private sector rice mills had sprung up across the rice producing states, with a total capacity of 240,000 tonnes. “The challenges of local rice which had discouraged consumers, especially when compared to imported milled rice have been overcome,’’ he added. He said that a major foreign investor, Dominion Rice, has invested 40 million dollars in a 30,000 hectare commercial rice farm with international grade rice mill in Taraba. He said that 25 of such mills were expected to be in operation by the third quarter of 2013. Adesina said that the milling capacity of the mills had been estimated at over 850,000 tonnes per annum.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:19:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015