Kwara State has joined elite States in rice production in Nigeria, with its over 102,000 metric tons output during wet and dry season of this past year.

This was contained in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s official document, celebrating the return of rice pyramid in Nigeria.

The North Central State, which contributed over 40,000 metric tons of rice paddy to the recently unveiled rice pyramid in Abuja, was not considered a rice producing state before the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, but the State has emerged amongst the top producers in the country with the efforts of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Kwara State branch, led by Dr. Ahmed Saba.

Kwara State has keyed into President administration’s rice revolution in an aggressive manner and this saw its rice production rise significantly within the dry and wet season, surpassing many states across the Federation according to report.

The Federal Government recently celebrated the success of it’s rice production efforts, with the return of rice pyramid in Nigeria’s Federal Capital, Abuja.

The Central Bank of Nigeria, while unveiling the FCT mega rice pyramid noted that, “at a period where the country had preponderance of imported rice in the Nigerian market, with only 6 functional Integrated Rice Mill and a national paddy output of about 4.5 million metric tons, the Nigerian rice industry was unattractive for both farmers and millers.

According to CBN, demand and supply gap was being met with import of over N600 billion worth of rice annually and this necessitated the introduction of the Anchor Borrowers program in 2015, as a game changer for small holder farmers financing.

“The anchor borrowers program created a dynamic ecosystem among all stakeholders, through the provision of input in kind, biometric identification of farms and farmers, extension services, guaranteed markets through well established off take contracts and further linkages to the agro processors to ensure the transmission of the gains from primary production to other nodes of the value chain”.

“Through the provision of quality inputs, good agronomics practices and secured markets for off take, productivity per hecters increased to an average 4-5 metric tons, integrated rice mills grew astronomically to over 50 in 2021 thereby unlocking enormous private sector investment to the rice value chain.

This also led to an increase in national output to over 9 million metric tons, from the initial 5 million, which is more than 80% increase within the space of 5 years” CBN said.

The Kwara state chapter of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) under the Chairmanship of Dr. Ahmed Saba also explained that, “we thought we didn’t do enough in our production, until we got to Abuja, where the central bank of Nigeria, who is in charge of the anchor borrowers program unveiled the data, showing that Kwara State actually did better than we thought,by being among the top rice producing states in the country”

According to Dr. Saba, Kwara State produced 62,332 metric tons of rice paddy during the dry season and 40,000 metric tons during the wet season, making a total of 102,332 metric tons.

Commending those who made this possible, Saba stated that, the success of Kwara State in rice production should go to the President of RIFAN, Alh Aminu Goronyo, who gave Kwara State chapter of RIFAN all the necessary support to achieve this feat.

“Alhaji Aminu Goronyo didn’t only give us all the support we needed, he also provided valuable guidance at critical times, which helped us to navigate all difficult circumstances.