Kebbi gets 1st rice farm supermarket

A supermarket and resource centre where rice farmers and other farmers could access agro-inputs, tractor, agricultural machineries such as power tillers, plow, planters and threshers has opened in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State.  The supermarket is a collaborative effort of the Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI), Kebbi State Government, John A. Kufour Foundation (JAK) and the […]

A supermarket and resource centre where rice farmers and other farmers could access agro-inputs, tractor, agricultural machineries such as power tillers, plow, planters and threshers has opened in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State.

 The supermarket is a collaborative effort of the Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI), Kebbi State Government, John A. Kufour Foundation (JAK) and the Nigeria Rice Policy Advocacy Platform (NIRPAP) in the state.

Speaking at the inauguration of the supermarket at Kalgo local government area of the state, the policy advisor of CARI, Nigeria and JAK, Kojo Sagu Sagoe, said the rice farm supermarket was an avenue for rice farmers to access inputs and services.

He said “Inputs such as seeds, chemicals, mechanization and other things they would need in a farm are there. It is not supermarket to sell rice but to service the rice farms.”

Sagoe said Kebbi was chosen from the North and Abakaliki from the East for pilot project of the rice farm supermarket because they are known for massive rice production. 

The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Barrister Attahiru Maccido, who was represented by the Director for Produce, said the CARI rice farm supermarket pilot project in the state was a testimony of the rice revolution that is going on in Kebbi State.

Earlier, the chairman of the rice farmers association and chairman of the Nigeria Rice Policy Advocacy in the state, Alhaji Sahabi Augie, said with the rice farm restaurant, it was certain that rice farmers and others in the value chain in Kebbi State would derive maximum benefits in their trade.