FG policy on rice slows local production, encourages smuggling

Apapa port that used to be the major route for rice importation no longer witnessed the usual traffic of ships bringing in the commodity, revenue accruing to the federation account from customs duty from rice importation dried off, yet, foreign rice continued to flood Nigerian markets.A freight forwarder and farmer, Mr Kolawale Afolabi of MLT […]

Apapa port that used to be the major route for rice importation no longer witnessed the usual traffic of ships bringing in the commodity, revenue accruing to the federation account from customs duty from rice importation dried off, yet, foreign rice continued to flood Nigerian markets.
A freight forwarder and farmer, Mr Kolawale Afolabi of MLT Consortium Ventures in Apapa, Lagos, told Daily Trust that what the government policy has achieved so far, is “a total ban on legal importation of rice, increased smuggling of rice into the country and a decrease in local.
“Go to Apapa port now, you cannot get a single cargo that brought rice. All the rice meant for Nigeria is diverted to the neighbouring seaports in Togo and Benin republics from where it is then smuggled into Nigeria. The government gets nothing from that; foreign rice continues to flood our markets. Rather than increase in local production of rice, farmers lose their crops because NIMET (Nigeria Meteorological Agency) scared farmers when they said there will be flood in 2013 but we saw no flood. That slowed down production.
“Under the present administration, the contribution of agriculture to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has dropped drastically, the hike in the rice import duty has led to the loss of over N110 billion customs duty within just a year and yet local rice production is low due to wrong information provided to farmers by NIMET. This is the worst that ever happened to the economy,” he said.
The Vice President of ENL Consortium, operators of Terminal C and D at Apapa port in Lagos where imported rice to Nigeria mainly comes through, Vicky Haastrip, told newsmen that Nigeria has completely lost the business of rice import to Benin Republic following the hike in rice import duty. She said the federal government has lost over N80 billion in revenue from her terminal alone as legal rice importation ceased.
She said before the increase in the cost of rice import duty to 110 percent effective from January 2013 that forced Nigeria’s rice importers to divert their cargoes to Benin Republic, her terminal used to be congested with ships bringing in rice but lamented that she handled only one shipment of rice last year.
Statistics made available to newsmen by the Apapa command of the Nigeria Customs Service revealed that the federal government lost over N110 billion revenue in 2013 alone when customs duty dropped by 90.6 percent following the increase in rice import duty that led to cargo diversion.
The Customs Area Comptroller at the Apapa port, Mr Charles Edike said before the increase in rice import duty, his command generated N131.4 billion revenue from rice import duty in 2011, N125.3 billion in 2012 but only N11.8 billion in 2013 following the implementation of the policy.
Commenting on what is militating against Nigeria becoming a net producer and exporter of rice, the Plant Breeder of the National Cereals Research Institute, Badegi in Niger State, Dr Maji Alhassan Iswako,whose institutional mandate include conducting research and developing rice varieties for farmers among other crops, said the federal government is far from meeting requirements in local production of rice that could lead to self-sufficiency.
He said for government to succeed in encouraging mass production of rice, “basically, just like living organisms, two factors are very important. The genetic in built and the environment; I think with genetic in built, we have materials that can perform and we should be able to cover all the available ecologies in the country for rice production. And that include both upland, rain fed lowland and irrigated lowland. We have materials that can survive there and produce maximally. But the environment is not ripe.
“Let me give you a typical example.  In 2013, many Nigerian farmers lost their crops to drought. In 2012, most Nigerians lost their crops to flood. In 2013, the announcement by weather forecasters was that there will be a lot of rain. So, farmers took two strategies; some farmers said since that is the case, let us go in quickly and start our planting early so that before flood comes, we are out of the field. Those farmers lost yield substantially because drought came in at an earlier stage.
“So, some of them lost their crops at the vegetative stage because the thing just dried up because the rain was so scanty. Those that were able to produce something, ended up with very little. Other people took the second strategy of saying let me wait for the flood to come and go first. Those are the ones that suffered the most. They waited for the flood and it did not come. They did not go into the field when they were supposed to, and by the time they decided to go in and plant, they now had a terminal drought. Some of them had seen green vegetation and hope of appreciable harvest, but the rain stopped. Most of them lost their crops. That is why we always say the government has to come in to provide enabling environment for farmers to reduce risks.
“Government needs to develop irrigation facilities. Provide farmers with modern facilities to enable them irrigate their crops. Work out the pattern of flood and make sure that even during the dry season, water will be supplied. So, we need to concentrate efforts in providing irrigation facilities first for those that are living in marginal areas so that they can use irrigation as a rescue strategy. Some of these areas do not even expect flood at all; only that the rains they depend on are not predictable either. They need something that when the rain stops at a time their crops are nearing harvesting, they will say let me just pump in some water from this source or that source.
“That will help to make Nigeria self-sufficient in farming. The essential message is this; the countries that are bringing rice here for sale or that we are importing rice from are not producing their rice under rain fed condition alone. In fact, in some of these countries, 90 to 100 percent of their rice is produced under irrigated ecologies. Unless government is able to take that bold stand, we will still be far away from self-sufficiency in rice production,” he said.
On the possibility of Nigeria attaining self-sufficiency in rice production for local consumption, Dr Iswako said: “Give and take, Nigeria can only produce two third (2/3) of its rice needs. The other one third must come from outside. Even as of today, we are still on that pedestal. If we put our needs, by the world forecast, it should be over five million metric tons, that is our consumption. What we are producing by forecast this year will be just a little over three million metric tons. So, we still have that deficit of about two million metric tons to be able to satisfy our needs. We are not talking of reserve yet. Food reserve is always very necessary because it serves as a backup in case of weather failure and other things capable of affecting our production. That is the current situation.”
Dr Iswako lamented that despite the fact that Nigeria has about 11 River Basins designed and built to provide irrigation water at strategic locations in the country, none of the River Basins is being used for maximum productivity due to lack of attention and basic facilities.
When contacted for comment, former Minister for Agriculture, Malam Adamu Bello said since the 2015 deadline given by the government to meet its promise of self-sufficiency in rice production is not far, he will prefer to wait patiently for the time, adding, “I wish Adesina the best of luck. We are waiting for the magic.”
Speaking in an interview with Daily Trust recently, Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ambassador Ahmed Ali Sirohey, said his country developed its irrigation facility to enable it attain self-sufficiency in food production, adding that  “a canal in Pakistan covers 470 kilometers and irrigates millions of hectares of land which was built during the British era. But after then, we built canals which are 600 kilometers. Fifteen years after independence, we built canals which are about 2,200 kilometers.
“These types of canals irrigate millions of hectares of land making the communities get richer. One thing you cannot find in Pakistan is people dying of hunger because they produced everything they needed to survive on. Irrigation system right now is 56,000 kilometers of canals and we have more than 5 million kilometer canals from dams to field.
“Pakistan has 33 percent arable land and Nigeria has 80 percent of its which is equivalent to Pakistan’s total area. Nigeria is not irrigating up to a million hectares. The experience of Pakistan can be used. With 190 million people we are still net exporters,” he said.