FRI, OCT 06 2023-theGBJournal|Rice producers in Nigeria say the era of profit for the industry is over, and now, it is a fight for survival, exposing the myth about the country’s rice revolution.
The much touted rice and paddy revolution was only happening in the board rooms where ”airconditioned farmers” were collecting fund from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and made planting in the cloud, that is what it apparent now.
The outcome of the revolution was the huge investment in rice mills which drove processing capacity up by almost 1000%, leaving a gaping hole between processing requirements and the availability of paddy.
Too little paddy chased after too many mills which in turn raised the price of paddy.
The ripple effect is thus: With the price of paddy up due to non availability, factories are no longer able to run at full capacity, when factories are not able to run at full capacity, that means that paddy rates increases hugely and when that increase occurs, ability of millers to repay plunges.
A lot of rice mills are going to be available for sale (that is happening already) and it is going to be difficult to find one standing by the end of 2024.
Many have already cut production time by as much as two/ third due to their very low paddy reserves with paddy going for as much N400,000 per tonne, up from N330, 000, as revealed by the Chairman of Northern Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Dalhatu Abubakar.
What is essentially exposed by the dire situation is that the Federal Government ignored the value-chain side that should have led investments across different points of the commodity value-chain, and also fund interventions in midstream operations.
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