Expert urges more farmers to engage in rice farming The Chief Executive Officer of Raymos Guanah Farms, Asaba, Mr Raymos Guanah, has called for more Nigerians to join the lucrative rice cultivation and the value chain to boost food production in the country. Guanah told newsmen in Asaba on Monday, that the local rice market […]
Expert urges more farmers to engage in rice farming
The Chief Executive Officer of Raymos Guanah Farms, Asaba, Mr Raymos Guanah, has called for more Nigerians to join the lucrative rice cultivation and the value chain to boost food production in the country.
Guanah told newsmen in Asaba on Monday, that the local rice market “is large enough to accommodate more farmers.’’
According to him, rice farming is very creative, creates jobs, provides food and at the same time puts money in the farmers’ pockets.
Guanah explained that since local farmers were not able to meet up with the demand of locally produced rice, “people are still able to smuggle and import rice into the country.
“In as much as we are trying to encourage the consumption of locally produced rice, we are yet to meet up with the demand for locally produced rice in the country,” he said.
He, however, suggested that in order to bridge the wide gap between the locally produced rice and the demand in the country, “there is need to encourage more farmers to go into rice farming”.
The former commissioner suggested that the state government should support rice farmers with farming implements like rice dryers, par-boilers and also subsidise the cost of fertilizer, agro-chemicals, particularly for large scale rice farmers.
Reviewing the activities of his rice farm last year, Guanah said that “2018 was a very fantastic year for us as rice farmers; we got lots of patronage from both government and individuals.
“We were not able to meet up with the demand. We harvested about 400 metric tonnes of rice in 2018 and we are targeting about 1,000 metric tonnes this 2019.’’
“We have just bought three new rice mills which have landed in Lagos in addition to the two we had before now.”
He expressed optimism that the new mills would boost the effort of the farm to meet its target of 1,000 tonnes of rice this year.
The farmer said the company received high level of encouragement from the government and individuals in 2018, adding that the assistance would improve its production.
Source: NAN
Photo Credit: Google
