Journal of Advances in Agricultural Science and Technology

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1 Journal of Advances in Agricultural Science and Technology ANALYSIS OF GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES ON RICE PRODUCTION IN NIGERIA Raw Materials Research and Development Council, 17 Aguiyi- Ironsi Street, Maitama District, PMB 232, Garki, Abuja-Nigeria. Article Info: Author(s): History: Received: Accepted Date: Vol 2 (6), pp, December, 2014 Corresponding Author: Raw Materials Research and Development Council, 17 Aguiyi- Ironsi Street, Maitama District, PMB 232, Garki, Abuja-Nigeria. smartmezie@yahoo.com Article Type: Review ISSN: Abstract The study was carried out to review the Nigerian government initiatives or policies formulated and injected into the rice subsector over the years to encourage increased rice production and attainment of self-sufficiency. The databank of the national Bureau of Statistics and information from relevant departments in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture were utilised. The study appraised the performance of government initiatives or policies over the years in the rice subsector, established policy gaps and proffer complementary or alternative policy measures by which increased rice production and attainment of self-sufficiency can be achieved. KEYWORDS: Rice, Increased Production, Government Initiatives, Analysis. INTRODUCTION Rice, which is widely believed to have originated from China and grown all over the world except Antarctica, is one of the leading global staple foods. It has been selected by the United Nation (UN) as a primary crop to enhance food security. In Africa, rice is a region-wide strategic commodity as highlighted in the resolutions of the Abuja Food Summit organised by the African Development Bank in This makes it a priority crop in the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa s Development (NEPAD).It has been noted to be the most rapidly growing food source in Africa with an estimated 4.6 per cent annual growth rate. In Nigeria however, rice is a leading staple crop; it is cultivated and consumed in all parts of the country. Over the years, Nigeria has been producing same crop below its potentials and this has given rise to increasing demand for rice in the face of the Nation s rapidly growing population which has resulted to wide demand and supply gap. The importation of rice to bridge the demand and supply gap is worth N365billion (Ayanwale and Amusan, 2012). This implies loss of foreign exchange for the country. The need to check this ugly trend over the years has given birth to formulation and injection of the following policies into the sector. The essence of this paper however is to proffer supplementary or alternative policy measures that can guarantee increased rice production that would reflect the country s potentials in the rice subsector. SECTORIAL POLICIES AIMED AT BOOSTING RICE PRODUCTION OVER THE YEARS Following the deficiency in rice production in Nigeria as can be seen in relatively low quality and yields for the cereal which has been greeted by high import bills resulting from importation of foreign rice of higher quality, thereby depleting the Nation s foreign exchange and jeopardizing local production, over the years, the Federal Government had come up with various policy measures aimed at impacting positively on rice production; among such policy actions are: PRESIDENTIAL INITIATIVE ON INCREASED RICE PRODUCTION ( ) The Presidential Initiative on increased Rice Production (2002) was aimed specifically at: *reversing the import bill, *Meeting domestic demand by 2006 and reach export capacity by Main targets were to increase rice production, improve milling quality, and promote marketing to provide domestic rice for consumption and to ultimately reduce national rice importation. The ambitious goal of the Initiative was to produce 15 million Tonne of rice from 3

2 090 J. Advan. Agric. Sci. Technol. million ha of consolidated farm land by The main activities included: * increase production, inputs and crop protection, by increasing yields, enhancing agronomic practices, providing credit to farmers, providing inputs, applying agricultural good practices such as minimum tillage; *enhance irrigation and land development schemes through rehabilitation and construction of current endowments; * improve processing, marketing and storage; * enhance farmers groups; and *seed production. Although the initiative did not reach its final goal, there was a 31 per cent increase in rice production between 2002 and Among the results of the Initiative s application, there were supply packages (known as R-Boxes, containing seeds and agro-chemical supplies) distributed in 36 states, the National Seeds Service (NSS) produced 58 tonne of foundation seed, 4.92 tonnes of breeder seeds and tonnes of foundation seed Stage 1 of NERICA and 12.6 tonnes of lowland varieties were produced by the National Cereal Research Institute and West African Rice Development Association, while capacity building was enhanced through Management Training Plots (MTP) in 25 states (Odoemena, 2008). NIGERIAN NATIONAL RICE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY (NRDS) ( ) Similar to the 2002 Presidential Initiative, the NRDS (initiated in 2009) goal is to increase rice production. The target set by NRDS is to raise paddy output from 3.4 million tonnes in 2007 to 12.8 million tonnes in There are three priority areas set for enhancement by the Strategy; they are: *post-harvest processing and treatment; *irrigation development; and *input availability, mainly focusing on seeds, fertilizer and farming equipment. NRDS includes a mixture of input supply promotion (such as 50% subsidy for seeds and 25% for fertilizer) and reduced custom tariff on imports of specific agricultural machineries (such as tractors and processing equipment). The high cost of seeds is currently a constraint on increased production. The National Agriculture Seed Council is in charge of seed production and certification, while the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) and the Africa Rice Centre regulate their delivery to producers (Diagne 2011). PRESIDENTIAL TRANSFORMATION AGENDA (2011) The overall goal of the Agenda is to define agriculture as a business, promote private sector investment in agriculture, along with the development of private sector driven marketing organizations and the promotion of Incentive-based Risk Sharing for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL). Rice is among the commodities (together with cassava, sorghum, cocoa, and cotton) for which a country-wide commodity-specific transformation plan is envisaged. The final goal of the rice transformation agenda is to reduce the import bill, and make Nigeria self-sufficient within a 5 years timeframe. To achieve the goal, the strategy aims at improving rice quality thereby offering a viable alternative to the current imports, while ensuring that a significant portion of demand in the domestic rice market will shift from parboiled rice to milled rice. Consequently, policies will not only focus on milled rice but also on parboiled rice as a supply side target. Activities will focus on enhanced irrigation and mechanization systems, through private sector involvement. For example, incentivize the private sector to invest in large parboiling and de-husking facilities in regions of high current production, such as Niger State and Cross River State. CROSS-COMMODITY INPUT SUPPORT: FERTILIZER POLICY Aside from rice-specific input support policies, there are initiatives that influence rice production, although their specific impact cannot be quantified. Both State and Federal Government can provide fertilizer to farmers as input support. However, contribution varies consistently between one state to the other, and one year to the other. The Federal Market Stabilization Programme (FMSP) allows companies to produce and import fertilizer and allocate it to state governments with a 25 per cent subsidy. State Governments may further add to the subsidy if they so wish. The National Investment Plan (NAIP) set a target of a 30 per cent increase in fertilizer use in the period , with an overall demand expected to grow from 2.6 to 3.4 million tonnes per year by There are three main initiatives within the NAIP actively targeted towards the increase in fertilizer use: *the Organic Fertilizer Development Programme (OFDP) promotes the use of organic fertilizer though a Public Private Partnership (PPP) approach; *the Fertilizer Quality Control (FQC) project aims at increasing the quality of fertilizer used and distributed; *the National Foundation Seed Multiplication aims at releasing high quality foundation seeds to certified producers. CROSS-COMMODITY PRICE SUPPORT MEASURES: GUARANTEED MINIMUM PRICE The Guaranteed Minimum Price Programme is the follow-up to the Buyer of Last Resort Grain Programme, formerly run by the Food Reserve Agency. The Buyer of Last Resort Grain Programme s main goal was to develop a buffer stock to respond to shortages of cereals,

3 Osuoha 091 as well as to influence prices by purchasing cereals when markets prices are below an intervention threshold (World trade Organisation(WTO) Review, 2011). In 2008, in response to the high food prices crisis, the Government encouraged producers by indicating that they would prevent prices from falling below a minimum, by purchasing excess produce (Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO)/Global Information and early Warning System on food and Agriculture (GIEWS) 2008). They also procured tonnes of fertilizer (International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) food Security Portal, 2008) POLICY GAPS The focal point of the above highlighted policy actions is centred on attaining self-sufficiency in rice production and achieve rice exporting Nation status. However, despite implementation of all the policy measures, Nigeria remained a major consumer and importer of rice in Africa. Recently, the Minister of Agriculture and Urban Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina revealed ( see Vanguard newspaper of Monday July, 14 th 2014) that Nigeria spends over N365billion on yearly importation of rice, out of which about 1billion is used per day. Thus, the country today is a net importer of rice despite its potentials to be self-sufficient. Of course, this is not without its attendant adverse effects on local production of rice. As it can be obviously observed, the rice subsector in the face of aforementioned policy measures is still characterised by some of the challenges they were injected into the economy to solve; and they include: 1. Wide demand and supply gap. The presidential initiative on increased rice production ( ) was meant to address this, but, unfortunately, up to date the country is yet to attain self-sufficiency let alone reaching export capacity. This is confirmed by over N365billion the country spends yearly on importation of rice. 2. Per hectare yield of cultivated rice farm land remained below projected potentials. This is confirmed by a research carried out using four improved rice varieties: WITA 4, FARO 15, FARO 35, and FARO44 which showed average yield gaps of 1.48, 2.85, 3.03 and 3.20 tons per hectare respectively. This makes rice varieties under exploited as farmers operate at levels where they obtain an average of 49% 0f the potentials yield (see 3. Public private partnership (PPP) the Presidential Transformation Agenda (2011) was meant to promote, the effect of which in the rice subsector is still a mirage. 4. Rain-fed ecology where you cannot control water (you apply fertilizer today, rain water washes it away tomorrow). 5. Inadequate financial resources (which has been demonstrated in the inability of farmers to purchase modern machines and equipment required for mechanised rice farming and processing. This however has left the farmers with no choice than to rely on the conventional techniques with its attendant low output). 6. Low share of the market by the locally produced rice, which has been demonstrated by the generality of Nigerians preference for imported foreign rice to our local rice. 7. Inadequate availability of improved rice grains hence, it becomes so challenging to have a maximum yield. 8. Inadequate enlightenment on the availability of improved technologies. 9. Inadequate investment in infrastructure that will boost rice production ( lack of access roads to farm and inadequate storage facilities to mention a few ). 10. Inadequate irrigation system and poor state of the river basins constitute a threat to triple planting seasons a year that could boost rice production. 11. Inadequate insurance policies to cater for the inherent high risk in the rice Subsector and inadequate incentives to boost production. POLICY POSITION As we can see in the above highlighted policy-gaps, the policy measures undertaken so far in the rice subsector have not really achieved all their set goals. Hence, the need for intervention of relevant organisational stakeholders such as THE RAW MATERIALS RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL (RMRDC) and/or other government organisations saddled with the statutory responsibility of facilitating import substitution industrialisation strategy of the federal government. However, as a member of Tariff Technical Committee (TTC) of the federal government, the RMRDC should rise to the occasion and take responsibility of strengthening the subsisting policies through tariff related policies and other supplementary policy measures. The aim of which is to provide alternative measures to ensure attainment of increased rice production, reduce or even eliminate the wide demand and supply gap and consequently save the Nation huge foreign exchange. Some of the ways the subsisting policies in the rice subsector can be strengthened include: 1. Review the trade liberalisation scheme (let there be upward review of rice tariff by 60%on the subsisting tariff) and increase surveillance at our borders to deter smugglers of this commodity. This will make the imported rice unbearably expensive in the market and consequently shift consumer s preference for foreign rice to locally produced rice. This must be implemented with high sense of commitment, as upward review of tariff for rice alone may not be enough if local rice must have a greater share of the market. 2. To ensure effective implementation of this particular policy measure in the face of lowered rice tariff regime by the neighbouring West African countries and aggressive pressure by smugglers, the Nigeria Custom Service should be given a special revenue target to be

4 92 J. Advan. Agric. Sci. Technol. generated from import duties on rice alone. It should be clearly stated that any revenue resulting from this new tariff regime should be kept aside for funding programmes aimed at increasing rice production in the country. 3. The federal government should come up with actions on establishing rice programmes and encouraging appropriate utilisation of resources and emerging improved technologies. For instance, campaign should be launched to promote demonstration of newly released improved varieties of rice seeds received from relevant rice research centres whose yields can compete with foreign rice. Campaign to eradicate pests affecting rice production and demonstration of mechanised equipment for rice cultivation should be considered as special features in such programme. 4. There should also be a repackaged and effective national rice competition amongst stakeholders and awards to those considered outstanding to encourage production. 5. Establish field activities: government should formulate and implement numerous field projects to improve rice based production and marketing under regular and special programmes; for example, projects on rice extension, pre-processing, village storage and rice processing; and a specialised effort to encourage specialised field projects aimed at assessment of rice losses at various stages of harvest and post-harvest operations. 6. Establish a workable credit facility scheme with one digit interest rate (maximum of 5%) for farmers and improved and assessable subsidies to farmers. These will not only serve as reduction in cost of production but boost rice production. 7. Establish a platform that will enable the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Commerce to closely work together in order to link production and marketing for greater efficiency. 8. Consider relevant insurance scheme for farmers to guide against losses. 9. Establish a national database for all rice farmers with a view to reaching out to them when the needs arise. This must contain the name and location of the farmer, size of the farm land / cultivated area and the likely yearly output as well as the constraints faced by the farmer. 10. Government should, through Public Private Partnership (PPP) provide world class standard rice process/ milling facilities in every rice growing community of the country (to be privatized in future); and also provide a platform that will facilitate buying off rice from the farmers after harvest and moving same to the processing and milling centres to ensure quality addition of value to the local rice. However, for smallholder farmers, government should provide them with domestic processing / milling machines at reasonably subsidized rates. Alternatively, RMRDC, as a government organisation that promotes indigenous processing technology can partner with relevant organisations be it in public or private sector to come up with locally fabricated domestic rice milling machines to be distributed to small household rice farmers, using the proposed National rice databank for rice farmers. This will certainly go a long way to increase rice production and bridge the demand and supply gap that has so far caused a drain on the Nation s foreign exchange. 11. Government should stop politicising rice related policies, such as granting waivers to some privileged importer of rice as such could threaten local production and increase importation into the Nation s market. 12. Address the challenges hindering the effective functioning of River Basins so as to enable same provide facilities for triple cropping seasons per annum and ensure increased production and steady supply to meet the national rapidly growing demand. 13. Come up with effective and efficient mechanism for distribution of fertilizer to rice farmers of all classes at a subsidized rate to improve rice yields. For this, the proposed National database for all classes of rice farmers above should be used to identify the farmers. 14. The Ministry of Agriculture and Urban Development in collaboration with private sector should ensure that processing capacity matches with production. This can be facilitated by establishing and promoting rice processing centres or clusters at state or regional level more especially in the areas where rice is grown. With this in place, value can easily be added to rice produced at cottage level and the farmers will in turn be empowered. 15. farmers should be encouraged and empowered to add value to their products/ paddy rice themselves through establishment of common processing facility or centre (CFC) where they can add value to their products for increased financial returns while the CFC is coordinated by the Ministry of agriculture. The advantages of this are many: i. The vast number of farmers can become processors. ii. The production-processing gap can be filled and iii. Farmers will remain in the farm as their lot will be significantly improved 16. Organizational stakeholders such as RMRDC and others should periodically organize rice policy based/ investment fora that will have rice farmers in attendance. 17. Sawah Technology: The sawah technology was developed in Japan which is a leading producing nation. Japan, China and Thailand account for more than 70% of importation deals into Nigeria. Over the years, the country had been able to sustain huge demand from other countries due to successful production strategies. Sawah technology is farming technology aimed at increased production. It involves land preparation in such a way that a plot of rice farm is demarcated by elevated bridge round the plot. The plot is tilled and pulverised to create even surface capable of trapping level water. Stones and roots are removed and the plot is flooded with water before rice seedlings are transplanted. The

5 Osuoha 93 puddled surface retains water at all times, guaranteed rapid growth and eliminate weeds. Fertilizers are applied, the elevated surrounding prevent nutrient lost through run off. This technology has the potential to increase per hectare yield of rice up to 10 tonnes. This technology having been introduced to Nigeria through Nigeria farm management and extension centre in Ilorin should be encouraged in other rice growing states of the federation. Training and demonstrations focused or centred on this technology will certainly lead to greater output in rice production in future. 18. Smart-psychological approach - Over the years, Nigerians demand/ preference for foreign rice has to a reasonable extent been driven by this mistaken-believe that processed foreign rice is better than our locally produced rice. This has been worsened by noninvolvement of Nutrition society of Nigeria and other similar organisations in giving the required publicity on the comparative nutritious advantage of locally produced rice such as Abakilike Rice in Ebonyi State, Bende Rice in Abia State, Igbimo Rice in Ekiti State and Ofada Rice in Ogun State over imported processed rice. This trend must be checked. Therefore, the consumers behavioural attitudes towards locally produced rice must be confronted with psychological approach. The Ministry of Agriculture and other relevant organisational stakeholders should come up with well-coordinated synergy with the Nutrition Society of Nigeria and other similar organisations, the aim of which is to systematically launch a smart-psychological attack on consumers behavioural attitudes towards consumption of local rice. Every advantage the local rice has over imported foreign rice in terms of nutrition and otherwise should be made a public knowledge both in the market places, schools and print media. This will certainly lead to a psychological persuasion amongst consumers and eventually have negative effects on consumers market demand schedules for foreign rice; hence, local rice will now have a greater share of the market and save the Nation huge foreign exchange 18. In addition, Government should lead by example by stopping the use of foreign rice for demonstration, feeding in government schools, sharing amongst public servants as festive period gift items and even as a relief materials for local and international beneficiaries. Development taking the lead) with the aim of learning from their experiences. REFERENCE Bamidele FS, Abayomi OO, Esther OA (2010. Economic Analysis of Rice Consumption patterns in Nigeria. https// Rice-Africa (2011). Proceeding of the First International conference on Rice for Food, Market and Development. Raw Materials Research and Development Council, 143pp. Rice Africa (2013). 2 nd International Conference on Rice for Food, Market and Development. Raw Materials Research and Development Council, 129pp. Monitoring African Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP)(2013)Analysis of Incentives and Disincentives for Rice in Nigeria. Rice consumption and importation in Nigeria, no Solution in sight. Ayanwale and Amusan (2012). Importation of rice to bridge the demand and supply gap in Nigeria. Akintayo, O.I; Rahji, M; Awoyemi, T.T and Adeoti, A. L ( 2011) Determinants of yields Gap in lowland rice production in North- Central, Nigeria. http// Journal home vol.11 no. 1 Diagne I, Bamba J, Manful J, Ajayi O(2011). Historic opportunities for Rice Growers in Nigeria, Interreseaux. Odoemena B, Ihedioha D, Ibana S, Okoli P (2008) Making Rice Agribusiness work in sub-humid tropics of Nigeria: The commodity value chain development approach Africa journal of Agricultural research vol.3(11), pp http// http// Analysis of Incentives and Disincentives for Rice in Nigeria. CONCLUSION It is strongly believed that if all of the above recommendations are religiously implemented, the nation will be on the path to her rightful place in rice production. In addition, the mode of production adopted by the highest rice producing Nations of the world should be understudied by the representatives of all the stakeholders (with The Ministry of Agriculture and Urban