Why Lagos purchases paddy rice from Kebbi, Niger, -Dr. Fashola explains.

I am Dr Oluwarotimi Fashola, Consultant for Lagos State rice project.

Where is the source of your Paddy in the state?

 Lagos State has a very unique system, i call it unique because Lagos state has a small land space in terms of agricultural cultivations, but we have a high income earning and we eat a lot of rice because we have a population that is urban based, therefore through the initiative of His Excellency, Dr Babatunde Raji Fashola, we started a programme which is called rice for job, where we are encouraging young graduates to go into rice cultivations in some pilot locations like in Badagry.  At the time we started in 2008,  less than 30 hectares of rice production was accomplished, and which as at today is over 300 hectares within the state alone, but we realised that there is need for more paddy and this is making us to explore other states.

Policy trust of his Excellency has given the state the responsibility of acquiring other lands in other states, so we've acquired land for rice and  other crops in other states, particularly for rice we have 500 hectares of land in Ogun State and there had been other land acquisitions for other crops across other states, but we still cannot meet the need  of the mill capacity of the centre established.  This has now informed the partnership with Niger  and Kebbi states towards buying paddy for commercial mill as Lagos state is the only state in South West that has an integrated rice mill  of 20,000 metric tons capacity that will need 5000 hectares of rice land which we do not have right now, so we have to buy paddy from other states.

How will you describe the acceptability of the rice mill in the market especially in Lagos?

 The acceptability has been quite good, because it is nutritionally fresh compared to imported rice that must have been stored for a minimum of 5 year.  Eko rice, is fresh, parboiled and it is unpolished, which gives a high nutrition benefit than anything you have in the market.