Smallholder rice farmers in the North Central zone of Nigeria have received inputs to boost their farming.
The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development distributed the inputs in Jos on Thursday in a one- day training programme for selected rice farmers in the Zone.
The Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Mohammad Abubakar, who was represented by the Regional Director FMARD, Plateau State Sylvester Bayei, said the beneficiaries were drawn from Plateau, Kogi, Kwara, Benue, Niger, Nasarawa, Niger and the FCT.
“Each beneficiary will receive 25kg certified rice seeds of the FARO 44 variety.” Abubakar said, adding that the country could not afford to rely on importation of rice as a staple food consumed in virtually all homes across the country.
“The intervention does not stop at production but continues to other stages of parboiling, de-stoning, polishing and grading to make us self-sufficient in rice production for export,” he said.
He said the ministry was also involved in the distribution of flood-tolerant certified seeds to farmers along the riverine areas, to mitigate the effect of flood and other natural disasters witnessed recently.
The minister said there were improvements in the milling process as new rice mills were set up in the process of reestablishing integrated rice mills in strategic rice production clusters.
