Cheap rice is coming | Kaduna rice farmers assure of bumper harvest

The chairman of the Rice Farmers’ Association of Nigeria, Kaduna State chapter, Jummai Victor, has disclosed that rice farmers in the state are expecting bumper harvest before the end of the year.

 

Speaking in an interview, Mrs. Jummai told Daily Trust that the price of foreign rice may crash as a result of the bumper harvest. 

 

Our reporter gathered that a 50kg of foreign rice presently sells at about N20,000. 

“We have started harvesting and presently, we are harvesting the up line. We will start harvesting the low line from November to December.

 

“We have been doing rice farming but this year is different because when the present government came into rice farming, it put a lot of emphasis on rice with the aim of stopping importation. 

 

“The federal government and the CBN came up with the anchor borrowers’ scheme for rice farmers, they really wanted to make sure that we don’t just farm rice but start exporting to other African countries. Because of the anchor borrowers scheme, many people came into rice farming, and by the grace of God before the end of the year, we are going to have a bumper harvest of rice.”

On challenges facing small-scale farmers, she noted that they lacked the financial strength to procure equipment including tractors, harvesters and planters among others without which they resort to doing their work manually.

“When it is time for harvest, they don’t have the harvesters but if they have the tractors, harvesters and planters, it would be easy for them,” she said.

Source: Dailytrust