By Mike Adeyemi
The Kwara Chapters of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria(RIFAN), has said rice production capacity in the state has hit 300,000 metric tons.
It said the bumper harvest was recorded during the last dry season.
The state Coordinator of RIFAN, Ahmed Saba stated this penultimate Thursday during the official flag- off of 2021 wet season farming and sales of recovered paddy to millers, held in Shonga in Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State.
According to him, “the intervention of RIFAN is a blessing to teeming population of Kwara State as it has brought about poverty alleviation across the state.
“For the dry season, we produced about 300,000 metric tons of rice in Kwara State. This has encouraged large number of people to come into rice farming,’ he enthused.
Saba added that the Federal Government’s concept on rice planting is apt having noted that people are chasing fewer quantity of rice in the market hence the hike in the price of the commodity.
Also speaking at the event, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who was represented by Dr. Olabintan Adewale, commended Kwara farmers for job well done, urging them not to rest on their oars.
“Anchor Borrower Scheme has several objectives, part of which is to improve welfare of farmers, which we have been able to do by encouraging more farmers to move from subsistence farming to what we called Agribusiness.
“Kwara farmers have done exceedingly well, but they can do better. On the scale of terms, I will score them 9/10. The CBN under the Anchor Borrower Scheme has been able to create 10 million jobs across the country,” Emefiele affirmed.
While acknowledging the importance of loan repayment to the sustainability of the programme, he stressed that the CBN constantly engage the farmers to enhance their trust in the system, provide a competitive price arrangement and facilitate effective market linkages for their outputs.
He further added that the partnership between the CBN, the Kwara State Government and RIFAN is aimed at strategically complementing the Economic Sustainability Plan of the present administration.
