Olam Rice farm targets 240,000MT annual production to reduce Nigeria’s food imports

Olam Integrated Rice Farm, in effort to promote food security and reduce Nigeria’s food imports has announced plans to increase its production capacity to 240,000 metric tonne of rice paddy per annum as against the present capacity of 120,000MT.

The Senior Vice President Olam Rice Business, Anil Nair disclosed this in Nasarawa state while hosting the Executive Governor of the state, Abdullahi Sule in a courtesy visit.

According to Nair, the on-going expansion is expected to contribute 90,000MT of milled rice to Nigeria’s domestic market. “In pursuit of President Buhari’s mandate of ‘producing what we consume,’ Olam Nigeria is pledging to continue its support in the fight to ensure food security and helping the country reduce its food imports by ramping up rice production through its over 5000 hectares, fully mechanized large-scale rice farm that produces 2 crops a year for the Nigerian market.

In addition, Olam participates across the country as the biggest off-taker of paddy rice from Nigerian farmers impacting livelihoods of more than 100,000 farmers directly and indirectly”

“The Farm which started as a model rice farm in 2011 transformed to a commercial operation in 2012 with a present size of over 4,400 Ha with a yield of 9MT per hectare over two annual crop cycles (Wet and Dry season cropping).

“In line with the local content policy, the Company has over 2000 employees on its payroll, out of which 80 percent of this population comes from the host state,” he said.

He also explained that the farm has reduced its expatriate engagement, to allow for in-house training arrangement whereby the indegene staff are trained and specialized in operating and maintaining of heavy-duty machinery.

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“Despite the achievement highlighted above, the company has very big challenges that are obviously militating the sustainable growth of the company, among these are insecurity and poor road infrastructure.

“The construction/rehabilitation of the major road network across the country will have a direct impact on the sustainable growth of the company business,” he added.

He also noted that as a matter of policy, the company had undertaken some Corporate Social Responsibility projects that have direct bearing to the host communities.

“These projects include construction and rehabilitation of rural roads, construction of classrooms for schools, employment of teachers, payment of scholarships and provision of Relief materials for Flood victims.”

In his remark, the Nasarawa state Governor, Abdullahi Sule, commended the management of the farm for the huge employment opportunities it has provided the people of the state.

He noted that Olam Farm has paved the way for indigenous farmers to succeed who are major out growers of the product.

“Our desire is to achieve self-sufficiency in agricultural production, we also want to drive the independent and economic power of the state on Agriculture.

“It is very encouraging to know that Olam patronises our local farmers which are the out growers. The out-growers scheme has led to the growth of so many countries. So I want to encourage our farmers to keep at it,” he said.