‘Rice farmers may abandon farms this year’
Expressing this fear to our reporter recently in an exclusive interview, the President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Architect Kabiru Ibrahim, said majority of the farmers who were encouraged by the federal government to farm rice are still looking for buyers, who are not forthcoming, even as the price of a bag of […]
Expressing this fear to our reporter recently in an exclusive interview, the President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Architect Kabiru Ibrahim, said majority of the farmers who were encouraged by the federal government to farm rice are still looking for buyers, who are not forthcoming, even as the price of a bag of 50 kilogrammes of paddy rice is as low as between N4,000 and N4,500.
The federal government fixed the minimum guaranteed price of 50 kilogrammes bag of rice at N6,500 but did not make any cogent arrangement to buy the produce from farmers or enforce the price in the market.
Architect Ibrahim, told Daily Trust that apart from financial losses staring the farmers in the face, the discouraging situation could force them to shift from cultivation of rice to other crops, which could impact negatively on the rice production target of the federal government.
Citing Jigawa State as one of the states facing the challenge of lack of buyers, he said many rice farmers in the state are in trouble as their last year’s harvests are still lying unsold.
“For instance, from information available to me, farmers that were encouraged by the government to farm rice in Jigawa State cannot sell their paddy rice harvested last year even though the price is low. Farmers may not farm rice this year,” he told our reporter.
The AFAN president lamented that too much attention is given to rice by Nigerians while other useful alternative crops are neglected. “We have maize, we have guinea corn, and we have wheat and other alternatives. Why must it be rice, he queried.
He urged government to assist the farmers by mopping up the unsold paddy rice to enable them remain in business.