The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has reiterated his determination to protect the interest of Nigerian farmers.

Dr Adesina said this during the second Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) Working Week and Stakeholders Workshop in Abuja.

While noting that agriculture accounts for 40 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP and 70 per cent employment, the minister regretted that 70 per cent of those employed by agriculture were poor farmers.

He attributed this to excessive importation of food in the country, which has led to the neglect of locally produced food.

Nigeria is the largest importer of rice in the world. The country imports 2.1 million metric tons of rice per year and spends N356 billion yearly on rice (N1 billion per day).

The minister said that rice is grown in Sokoto, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Ebonyi and Ogun states and wondered why Nigeria still imports rice.

He disclosed that the reason the Federal Government launched the Rice Transformation Agenda was to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice, stressing that if Nigeria continued to import rice, by 2050, it would be consuming 3.6 million metric tons per year.

While explaining that the importation of rice from 1995 till date had risen  by 800 per cent, he said Nigeria was becoming slave to other countries.

Speaking at the workshop, the Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Ryuichi Shoji, commended the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for making consistent efforts to achieve its goals.

He pledged that Japanese experts would collaborate with Nigeria to  develop agriculture.

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protecting farmers
written by BELLO BAIDU JEGA, July 17, 2012

itis true the agency that protect the farmers are the various agencies of the agric ministries all over the world BUT IN NIGERIA THEY ARE THE KILLERS.
FARMERS ARE INVOLVED IN AGRIC POLICIES ALL OVER THE WORLD BUT IN NIGERIA, THEY ARE NOT
SO THE PROTECTIONS NIGERIAN FARMERS NEEDS ARE TO BE INVOLVED IN THE PROCUREMENT AND DISTRIBUTION OF ALL THE INPUTS AND IMPLIMENTS AS WELL AS FIXING THE PRICES OF PRODUCE
IN BANGLADISH ALONE, THEY HAVE ABOUT 17,000 MILLING PLANT AND THE COST OF A PLANT IS NOT MORE THAN 100K USD TO 400K USD. BUT THE MINISTRY OF AGRIC IN NIGERIA WANTS TO PROCURE IT FOR THE NIGERIANS MILLERS AT THE COST OF ALMOST 12M USD EACH AND IS ONLY FOR 100MT PER DAY
PLS KINDLY HAVE A FORUM TO HAVE A DISCUSSION WITH FARMERS OF ALL THE CROPS IN NIGERIA,

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