Support Farmers To Crash The Price Of Rice, RIDAN Urges FG

The Rice Distributors Association of Nigeria has called on federal government to do more in encouraging rice farmers to go back to farm for the price of the commodity to crash down in the country.

National vice president of the association, Chief Mrs Lola Solaja, made the appeal yesterday at the official commissioning of Shamad Concept (Nig) Ltd Rice Mill in Kano.

Mrs Solaja said, this could be achieved by effective monitoring on the federal government policies on food sufficiency such as the ancho-borrower programme, to ensure that the assistance reached target beneficiaries.

The country was witnessing the proliferation of rice mills, but the question remained where such companies would get the rice to mill.

“The government should also encourage graduates to embrace farming, give them the capital, good seed, fertilizer and the training they need to do modern farming.

“The prices will definitely go down like the telecoms’ SIM cards, all we need is for more people to go back to the farm,” she said.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Deputy Managing Director of the company, Alhaji Mohammed Sadiq, said the factory was established 20 years ago and was into different businesses such as oil and gas, oil milling and leather/polythene production.

“Rice milling is incorporated in line with the federal government’s commitment to make Nigeria a producer and a self-reliant country.

We are determined to produce standard quality indigenous rice, considering its economic importance in our day to day consumption for the benefit of the population and economic growth,” he said.