As the border closure lends itself to shifting emphasis from foreign made rice to locally grown varieties, opportunities in the process chain of rice production are also being highlighted alongside.
De-stoning is particularly a gap that appears yet to be fixed in the finishing of Nigerian rice reproduction as wholesalers, retailers and consumers tend to shy away based on this.
Adelakun Ajala’s ‘Analysis of Challenges Facing Rice Production in Nigeria’ published in the Journal of Food Processing identified the presence of stone as the main problem of Nigerian rice grains.
David Ukaoka, in his tweet dated 15 of October said: “So I went to buy rice from my wholesale guy and he just kept lamenting that they closed the borders. They were refusing to buy the Nigerian rice because they found out the rice is 25 percent sand and stones.”
Another user with the handle @Grace_found confessed that “Nigerian rice is sweet, but the ones in the market now is full of stones. If we sincerely take our quality standard a bit higher, I believe all unbelievers will become believers and be encouraged to patronise locally made rice.”
@d_shefizzle said “I bought a Nigerian made rice because I could not get an imported one in my area due to the border closure of course but I have been eating stones instead of rice. They want us to buy Nigerian made and Nigerians are not packaging their goods well.”
Read also: ‘Localisation panacea to growth, wealth retention in Nigeria’
These testimonies and many more prove the validity of the problem, equally presenting a potential opportunity for entrepreneurs to venture.
Agriculture experts already affirm that mechanisation gaps, which de-stoning is fallen under, remains a drawback in agricultural practices, limiting delivery of improved standards.
Accelerating mechanisation alone can double Nigeria’s rice production to 7.2 million tonnes, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report on boosting rice production. It estimates that increasing the mechanisation rate in Nigeria from 0.3 horsepower per hectare (hp/ha) to 0.8 (hp/ha) in the next five years, Nigeria will need to at least triple its current stock of machinery over the same period.
In addition to raising production, adequately increasing mechanisation has the capacity to raise yields, increase labour productivity, reduce post-harvest losses, increase income generated by farmers and deepen import substitution, the report stressed.
In this case of de-stoning, mechanisation has the capacity to win the heart of teeming Nigerian away from imported rice consumption.
Rice is one of the most consumed staples in Nigeria, with consumption per capita of 32 kilogramme. In the past decade, consumption has increased 4.7 percent, almost four times the global consumption growth, and reached 6.4 million tons in 2017. This accounts for 20 percent of Africa’s consumption.
As at 2011, rice accounted for 10 percent of household food spending, and 6.6 percent of total household spending. Given the importance of rice as a staple food in Nigeria, boosting its production has been accorded high priority by the government Anchor Borrower’s Programme of the Central bank of Nigeria. Rice production in Nigeria reached a peak of 3.7 million tons in 2017.
In spite of this improvement, Nigeria’s rice statistics suggest there is an enormous potential to raise productivity and increase production. Yields have remained at 2 tonne per hectare, which is about half of the average achieved in Asia.
More than 80 percent of Nigeria’s rice is produced by small scale farmers, while the remaining 20 percent is produced by commercial farmers. Most of the processors are small scale with low capacity (less than 300 kilogramme per hour) and obsolete mills.
