12 Feb 2014 – And it’s all about food now as ThisDay Live shares the report that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has stated that Nigeria will be a net exporter of rice in 2017 due to the massive increase in the milling capacity of rice in the country.
The Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, explained that the capacity for rice milling went up by about 300 per cent, maintaining that the springing up of investments from local investors in the country would ensure that rice importation ceases to happen in the next four years.
We’re told that the Minister, who was on a working visit to the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi, also shared that in the 2012 dry season, Nigerian farmers in the North produced a record of 1.1 million metric tonnes of rice, about 37 percent of all the rice that the country needs to be self-sufficient. This year he said, the target is about 2.1 million metric tonnes.
He also lauded FIIRO’s High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) 20 percent inclusion in bread adding that, replacing 20 percent of the wheat input in bread making would put about $240 billion in the pockets of Nigerian farmers.