Rice is one of the most consumed staples in Nigeria, and according to a 2017 PwC report, consumption has increased 4.7percent, almost four times the global consumption growth, and reached 6.4 million tonnes in 2017- accounting for 20percent of Africa’s consumption.
Given the importance of rice as a staple food in Nigeria, boosting its local production has been accorded high priority by the government judging from its ban on the importation of rice into the country and various intervention programs such as Central Bank’s Anchors Borrowers’ Scheme.
A report by the Global economies & markets business show that between 2012 and 2015, Nigeria imported $4 billion worth of rice in order to meet the increasing local consumption.
Buoyed by the desire to boost local rice production and increase farmers participation in the rice value chain, government in partnership with, United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Agric-business company, Olam, launched the Value Chain Development Program (VCDP) in 2015, a six-year initiative, aimed to improve both cassava and rice value chains for smallholders, reduce rural poverty, increase food security, create jobs and accelerate economic growth on an inclusive and sustainable basis.
Through the Commodity Alliance Forum (CAF) of the program, farmers engage with the private sector on issues relating to marketing, credit access and availability, as well as to consult with the government regarding policy and infrastructure support on a sustainable basis.
Olam would connect customers to farmers, also agreed to invest in increasing the productive capacity of participating rice farmers and to purchase the rice. Olam would also offer smallholders digital credit, co-financing for extension services, and the creation of collection centers within 15km of production clusters.
The company would, however, benefit from consistent and high-quality supplies of rice.
So far of the 45,000 smallholders, processors, and marketers participating in VCDP, about 70 percent have doubled their agricultural income.
In the case of farmers, the increase was from $611 to $1,375 per hectare. In three years, roughly $137.5 million from sales was deposited in the bank accounts of participating farmers.
Recordkeeping, business planning and connection to financial institutions has been strengthened for 3,500 farming organizations. To date, 3,292 purchase agreements have been signed between individual farmers’ organizations and major buyers. Additional produce aggregation centers, or storage facilities, have been either constructed or rehabilitated, which has reduced post-harvest losses by 70 percent.
Since VCDP’s inception, farmers produced and marketed over 450,000 metric tons of rice — a significant contribution to national and local food security.
