Moses Uwagbale
Kebbi state has increased its annual rice production output from 700 million metric tonnes to 4 million metric tonnes, the Chairman of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Mr Muhammed Sahabi-Augie, said on Sunday.
He lauded the efforts of Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbit state for the increase and expressed satisfaction with the efforts put in place.
Sahabi-Augie who addressed some students who came for excursion from six different schools to witness rice pyramid at Zauro, outsketch of Birnin Kebbi, the state capital, said the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) also contributed to the achievements.
“Rice production outputs have increased from 700 metric tons to over 4 million metric tons per annual in the state.
“Before, more than 80 per cent of the rice we consumed in Nigeria was imported from China, Thailand and other countries where rice importation were coming from into our country despite the fact that we have enough land, enough farmers to produce rice internally for our consumption.
“We are buying foreign rice and paying for foreign duties, this is the kind of setback for our economy went through. Agriculture used to be the bedrock of our economy in Nigeria, unfortunately, previous governments didn’t have the political will like what we are witnessing in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.”
He recalled that when the present government was swon-in, as the chairman of RIFAN, “I knew that our governor, Sen. Abubakar Atiku Bagudu contacted our national association enquired from us what were the challenging bedeviling rice farming in kebbi state despite all the potential we had.
“We told him the challenges of fertilisers and other inputs to produce rice. He was devastated about our challenges and promised to give us all the necessary support to ensure we have good rice farming in Kebbi state.
“Because most of the farmers involved are rural farmers who don’t have income, because of the nature of rice farming, it is capital intensive. You need fertilisers, water pumping machines, insecticides and other agro chemical that the farmers needed for the rice farming”.
Sahabi-Augie observed that the involvement of the Federal Government through the CBN hcouple with Gov. Bagudu’s intervention farmers have been having it so good in the state.
He recalled that: “Anchor Borrowers Programme was born out of this background on Nov. 17, 2015 and President Muhammadu Buhari was in this town, Zauro to launch the programme which was supported and sponsored by the state government with about 77,000 farmers.
“All the farmers were given the inputs such as fertilisers, water pumps, agro chemical and seeds, as well as fuel to be fueling the water pumping machines.
“Before the Anchor Borrowers, our output in Kebbi state was just about 700 metric tons. But the first year of implementing the programme, we recorded 1.4million metric tons in the state.
“From that time on, our yields have been rising up till time that we can proud of producing 4 million metric tons per annual. So that is the history of Anchor Borrowers Programme in Kebbi state from 2015 till now”, he said.
