Akwa Ibom State is set to witness an unprecedented boost in rice production as Chinese investors are poised to establish an integrated rice mill in the state.


The Chairman of Heilongjiang Hegang Sanjiang Plain Rice Group, Mr. Wang Jingxin, made this revelation when a business delegation led by him visited the  Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr. Nathan Matthew Ekaette, in Uyo, the state capital recently.

Jingxin who was accompanied by the Consular-General of the Nigerian Embassy in China, Ambassador Ali Ocheni and the Trade Commissioner in the Embassy, Mr. A. Agboluaje, Jingxin  spoke of plans to set up a rice research institute in the state. He said they were in the state to scout for investment opportunties in the rice value chain.

For a start, he said the company is embarking on a pilot production on 500 hectares of farmland, thereafter expanding to 10,000 hectares. Responding, Ekaette assured the team of government’s preparedness to support them with an enabling environment, adding that Akwa Ibom has a large fertile swamp land reserve of over 100,000 hectares suitable for rice cultivation.

The Commissioner took the group on a tour of the government-owned rice farm at Mbiabet Ikpe in Ini Local Government Area. After an assessment of the farm and its adjoining land, the team said there was no need to take soil samples for testing, as the luxuriant nature of the rice and grasses there-in were indicators of high fertility of the soil.

However, the Chinese investors  demanded the construction of the 40-kilometre Odoro Ikpe-Mbiabet Ikpe-Ikot Essiyere road leading to the farm and the clearing of a 500-hectare swamp land around the rice farm vicinity and also requested the state government officials to undertake a facility tour of the company’s holdings in China to ascertain its capacity as well as sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the company and the state government.