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According to Nnunu, “the major challenge we face in this sector is the unavailability of tractors, parboiling machine, drying machine, access roads, boreholes to mention but a few.”
It was also noted that this is the reason our home-grown rice is more expensive than the foreign one. “Government should encourage exporting our locally made products like the Abakaliki rice by providing them easy access to these infrastructures and place an outright ban on the importation of foreign rice in the country,’’ he said.
However, he also applauded the effort of the Federal Government in conjunction with the United Nations to encourage more Nigerians to embark on farming in order to reduce high rate of scarcity of food.
“Farmers are not meeting up with the high demand of our products by consumers due to lack of modern machines. This has led to a low turnout of agricultural output and accounts for the relatively high cost of local rice compared to foreign ones,’’ he said.
On his part, the Managing Director of Ainotrans Energy, Mr. Innocent Mbey, believes that rice milling is capital intensive. ‘‘We need aid from the Federal Government in the provision of the necessary machines for the production of Abakaliki rice. Better machines in the production can equally enhance standard quality.
The level at which Abakaliki rice are being patronised is still at average percentage; this is due to the fact that the level of output by farmers are not meeting up with the high demand of our products by consumers.
Abakaliki rice is seen as being expensive compare to foreign rice as a result of lack of machines in place thereby involving almost 80% of human power in the production of Abakaliki rice and the cost of paying for this labour is expensive compare to when machines are used in the production,’’ he noted.
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