Rice: Agriculture graduates tell FG to subsidise farmers

The Chief Executive Officer of the Agricultural Graduates Association of Nigeria, AGAN, Husseini Ilyasu, has urged the Federal Government to subsidise agricultural inputs and assist farmers to scale back manufacturing prices and strengthen Nigeria’s meals safety.

Ilyasu mentioned excessive prices of fertiliser, improved seeds and different inputs made native rice manufacturing costly, placing home farmers at a drawback towards international producers who profit from authorities subsidies.

“There is no way you can go into food security without subsidy,” he mentioned throughout a coaching programme on gender-friendly rice-processing applied sciences for 20 ladies’s cooperative teams in Bida, Niger State.

The programme was organised by Hello Tractor in collaboration with AGAN and the Federal Government of Nigeria/International Fund for Agricultural Development, FGN/IFAD, assisted Value Chain Development Programme, VCDP, in Bida space of the state.

According to him, “Government must do everything possible, even at its own cost, to keep the farmers on their farms to produce, not leaving them to their fate”.

He recognized poor processing high quality as one other problem affecting the competitiveness of Nigerian rice, citing parboiling and color sorting as areas requiring enchancment to meet client expectations.

“The issue of quality is very, very important and improving processing methods could help locally produced rice compete more effectively with imported alternatives,” Ilyasu noted.

According to Ilyasu, the technology could reduce processors’ expenditure on firewood while providing an alternative use for rice husks generated during milling. He also noted that dependence on firewood contributes to deforestation.

He said the initiative would also strengthen links between farmers and processors by gathering information on the rice varieties processors require and communicating their preferences to farmers through agricultural extension services.

The training introduced women processors to technologies designed to reduce production costs and environmental damage, including the use of rice husks as an alternative to firewood and steam-based methods for parboiling rice.

He explained that this would help farmers grow varieties suited to processing and market demands, while improving coordination among seed producers, farmers, processors and consumers.

Ilyasu called on the government, farmers, processors and consumers to work together to address challenges in the domestic rice industry.

“Everybody must be educated, and all hands must be on deck for us to be able to work together to solve this problem of importation,” he mentioned.

Mrs Elizabeth Yisa, Business and Marketing Development Officer with the Niger VCDP mentioned the programme was a part of efforts to promote different power sources in agriculture.

She acknowledged that the programme had additionally educated farmers to use rice husks for power and convert them into charcoal for gas.

Ilyasu additional expressed optimism that elevated rice manufacturing throughout the present season could lead on to decrease costs, though the extent of any discount would rely on precise output, market provide and different prices alongside the worth chain.

Also, Mabel Andrew of Hello Tractor mentioned the initiative was supposed to encourage better participation by ladies in agriculture and introduce applied sciences that would scale back the bodily calls for of rice processing.