 |
| Rice |
For some, Kebbi State is the
rice capital of Nigeria. Home to hundreds of thousands of rice farmers
with over 500,000 hectares of rice farmlands, the story of rice in the
state is, however multidimensional.
A first time visitor to any of the
state’s large paddy rice markets will be overwhelmed by the quantum of
rice piled for sale as merchants, millers all over the country troop to
the area.
As diverse as the farmers and the buyers
are, so are the issues in their minds different. For the farmers, the
issues of cost of quality seed, fertiliser and market for their produce
remain paramount while the buyer fears smuggling activity which triggers
downward movement of prices.
Suru paddy rice market is one of the
markets that witness a beehive of activities. Daily Trust interacted
with rice farmers and buyers who shared the stories of their successes
and the fear that the market’s future may depend on the answer to the
key question: will the gains recorded in the last two years be
sustained?
Driving over the main road, about 500
metres to the market, is a herculean task as one manoeuvers his way
through the thousands of 80kg bags of paddy rice, large crowd and
articulated trucks loading rice.
Standing in the midst of such bags of
rice sweating was Malam Aminu Mohammed, a 32-year-old man and father of
three. He said that he generated about N400,000 as profit
during the wet season alone.
However, for the dry season in which he
harvested 60 bags, he expressed dismay over what he called the fallen
price of paddy rice, which is now selling between N7,500 to N9,000. That
wasn’t the case few months ago when he sold the same 70kg bags at
N14,000 each.
Asked why he thinks the prices
plummeted. He pointed at “news of large quantity of foreign rice
smuggled into the country last month,” which sparked protest from
farmers across the country.
But Adamu Salisu, who said he is a
farmer and a merchant, thinks the buyers sometimes raised alarm over
massive importation, which might jeopardize the future of markets – the
result is that such development affects the markets which the buyers
take advantage of.
In Bunzu market, you could see rice
everywhere. Although most farmers are happy with how much they are
making now, compared to past years, some are worried that smuggling will
erode the gains made in the past 15 months.
But Danjuma Bukar Alero believes that
beside the smuggling which is their biggest threat, the big millers in
the country do influence prices in the markets – a situation he wants
the government to intervene in, in order to protect the smallholder
farmers.
Although the markets are huge, they are not organised to aid collection of statistics and/or taxes on paddy rice trading.
The markets are also fast expanding and
the quantum of product is increasing by the day as more and more farmers
are heeding the call to go back to farm.
With two large-scale mills (Labana rice
in Birnin Kebbi and WACOT rice, which is about to commence operations in
Argungu) and pockets of medium and small mills all over, the farmers
should not be worried about the future of their market, but as it is
now, even those milling locally are worried because they might go out of
business if government does not tighten the noose further on smuggling.
Mohammed Sahabi Augie is the Kebbi State
Chairman of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN). He told
Daily Trust that the state is recording annual increase in the quantum
of production especially in the last rain-fed and dry seasons.
This, he said, was also possible because
of the FG Anchor Borrowers’ programme. He however thinks the market
needs to be reorganised-something Governor Abubakar Bagudu said the
state was working on.
Mohammed Sanusi Umar, the Director of
Kebbi State Agriculture and Rural Development Programme, said the state
government pays strategic attention to wheat and rice production and as
such is working on a more organised system that will benefit both the
farmers and the processors.
No comments:
Post a Comment