Rice sellers urge FG to strengthen support for home-grown rice

Rice

Rice sellers in Lagos have tasked the Federal Government to intensify its efforts towards promoting home-grown rice in the country.

The traders made this call during an exclusive interview with AgroNigeria on Tuesday at the Daleko Market Mushin Lagos.

Some of the traders who expressed concerns about the hike in the price of rice especially the home-grown ones.

According to Sunday kalu,” We are producing but our produce is not enough, the government should boost our local production as they are not enough in the market.’’

A rice seller who identified herself as Iya bola also said: “there is no Nigeria rice in Daleko market, all we are selling here is Cotonou rice, you can ask around.”

She added that “even when the homegrown rice is available it is not affordable, adding that the government should support more of our home-grown rice and reduce the price to encourage more patronage.”

Another Trader said the price of locally produced rice should be reduced so that foreign rice will no longer have a sizable market in the country.

Observers have called for more support for the local production of rice to reduce the dependency on foreign rice which oftentimes is not nutritious compared to local ones.