Group targets 250,000 hectares rice plantation in Ogun, Oyo states

He said the group is set to commence the 250,000 hectares rice project in Oyo and Ogun states, adding that “rice has grown to become a food security and cash commodity crop in Nigeria and its demand in the country has been on the increase in recent years with an estimated current consumption of more […]

He said the group is set to commence the 250,000 hectares rice project in Oyo and Ogun states, adding that “rice has grown to become a food security and cash commodity crop in Nigeria and its demand in the country has been on the increase in recent years with an estimated current consumption of more than 5 million tonnes annually,” he said.  
He said Nigeria’s rice production capacity is now put at over 2 million tonnes each year, adding, “Nigeria has a high potential for rice production in terms of land availability, human resources, and good climate and a lot of paddy is grown in the country but ineffective handling and processing of the produced paddy has contributed immensely to the poor quality of the resulting milled rice making the product unattractive to both local and international consumers and thus discouraging and hampering the development of the rice industry in Nigeria.
“Having identified paddy handling and processing as the main bottlenecks in the production of quality processed rice, the OBA group, with the approval of the federal government and support agencies like the World Bank has secured about 250,000 hectare land in some communities in Ogun and Oyo states to go into massive rice farming project.
At a recent meeting of the stakeholders in Abeokuta, the environmental consultant, Kayode Ogungbuyi, said the group has already procured paddy rice intake, cleaning and storage with drying and de-stoning facilities with two silos each of 500 tonnes capacity for storage of 1,000 tonnes of clean paddy among others.
Ogun State Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Olumuyiwa Adesina, assured that his department will support the project in the two states saying the group is planning to embark on triple rice cropping.