Rice Production in Nigeria Records a Huge Positive Increase.

27th Aug 2014 Guys, remember when we shared with you that the Dangote Group is investing $1 billion in rice production in Nigeria? They seem to be on to something. An article in BusinessDay informs us that annual domestic processed rice production in Nigeria has jumped from 2.9 metric tonnes, valued at N580 billion naira, to over four million metric tonnes valued at N800 billion, all this, in the last two years.

Many large corporations are making investments in local rice production, and as it stands 80 percent of the five million metric tonnes of processed rice consumed yearly in the country is produced in the country!

According to Minister of agriculture and rural development Akinwunmi Adesina, “Nigerians eat our high quality local rice but do not know. We have totally changed the quality. Our expanded local rice production has added N750 billion to the economy, with over N407 billion as net incomes to farmers and rice processors, and boosted rural economy by 360,000 jobs”.

Interesting! The Minister adds that within three years, national paddy rice production rose by an extra 7 million metric tonnes, and the number of integrated modern rice mills in the country rose from just one in 2011 to 18 by 2014, all processing the local paddy into high quality finished rice.

We’re told that part of the reason for this impressive jump, is that more and more people are turning to locally produced rice because it seems to be much safer! Apparently, imported rice spends a lot of time, sometimes up 10 years in storage before being brought into the country.

EL Reports is all for local production and food sustainability, so we say, grow that rice, we’ll eat it!