The quest by the Federal Government to make Nigeria self –sufficient in rice production is on a steady course, as Kano state government’s multi-billion naira investment in rice has started yielding dividend.
The investment has accumulated into the commencement of harvest of over 1.2 million metric tonnes of pad rice produced by farmers in the state in the out-going farming season.
Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, officially kick-started the rice harvesting programme in Samawa and Kadawa farming belt which is situated on the outskirts of Kano metropolis.
The governor said that the resolve to personally flag off the harvesting programme was to prove to Nigerians that the state has fully embraced the initiative of the Federal Government to diversify the nation’s economy through scaling up agricultural development.
According to him, the investment of the state government so far in the rice production has assisted tremendously in boosting pad rice production in the state to over 1.2 million metric tonnes target.
“We glad to announce that farmers in Kano have key into the rice development programme of the Buhari administration, and have attained the total consumption of about 700,000 tonnes, and we expected that by next year’s farming season, Kano State will attain over 2million tonnes which is 50% of Nigeria’s rice need of about 4 million tons.
“The height which the state is able to attain so far, was a product of planning and massive investment which my administration made in the past one year to boost the cultivation of some selected crops, namely: Rice, Wheat, and Tomato.
“One of the things which we did was that at the beginning of this year `s farming season farmers were mobilized through the various farmers groups in the state, and initially we voted the sum of N100 million for the purchase of farm implements and seedlings”, the governor noted.
He added that his administration provided over a billion naira loan for over 10,000 small-scale farmers under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Anchor-Borrower programme, pointing out that the loan package was delivered to the benefitting farmers without payment of interest.
In the same vein, Governor Ganduje said that under his administration effort to ensure all year round farming a programme tagged “Drive Away Dry Season” over 1000 boreholes was drilled in some farming communities across the state.
“The state’s agricultural policy provide necessary impetus aimed at facilitating increased agricultural output and employment generation to the teeming populace under the newly introduced concept of developing commercial agriculture”, the governor maintained.
Stressing that the state has irrigable spaces ranging from 20 hectares to 48, 600 hectares, Ganduje explained that the state is blessed is with water bodies that are sufficient to irrigate up to 400, 00 hectares and would equally provide high potential for fish production.
The governor said his administration had recently provided 5, 000 water pumping machines to irrigation farmers in the state for free, urging irrigation farming communities in Kano to embrace commercial agriculture for the overall good of the state.
Speaking earlier, Abubakar Haruna, chairman, Kano state branch of the Rice Grower Association of Nigeria, commended the Kano state government for the support and encouragement it has been to farmers in the recent times.
Haruna asked the governor Ganduje to prevail on the Federal Government not to yield to the pressure in some quarters to lift the ban on importation of rice across the nation `s land borders.
He said doing so would hamper the current initiative to make the nation self-sufficient in the production of the commodity as well as generating jobs for the young Nigerians through active cultivation of the commodity.
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