A former Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Member of Parliament for Twifo Atti Morkwa Abraham Dwuma Odoom has explained how the Nigerian government achieved the strides in rice production.
The Nigerian government rice project has been in the news over the past few weeks after videos of huge pyramids constructed with bags of rice surfaced online.
In an interview with journalists, Abraham Dwuma Odoom explained that the key stakeholders, including the President, the Central Bank, Governors, Farmers and actors in the value chain collaborated to make the Nigerian rice industry what it is today.
“When I came here in 2014, under the program Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI), and I visited the states and the local government areas, the morale of the farmers was very low because of low productivity. As a leader, I recognized two things; create inspiration, get results,” he said.
After meeting with the central bank of Nigeria governor and all stakeholders of the program, he realized that Nigeria possessed the capacity to produce enough rice to end rice import.
“In 2015, the Anchor Borrowers Program was launched by the Nigerian Central Bank. Under this scheme, farmers were given loans and technical support so they could increase yield and expand production while the Nigerian government limits dependency on imported food.”
In 2015, Nigeria banned the importation of rice. Since 2015, the Anchor Borrowers Program has heavily boosted the Nigerian agriculture sector by drastically reducing rice import.