President Muhammadu Buhari has declared the Administration’s Anchors
Borrowers’ Programme a huge success, saying 12.2 million farmers have
joined the rice and wheat revolution while the country is moving close
to self- sufficiency in major grains.
‘Apart from the successes we have achieved in tackling insecurity and
fighting corruption, perhaps our most remarkable progress has been in
the area of agriculture. Quietly but steadily, our agriculture
revolution is bearing fruits, he said at the 25th Edition of the Nigeria
Media Merit Award (NMMA) Ceremony in Lagos on Wednesday.
He said the success of the agriculture revolution has turned thousands
of rice farmers into millionaires and drastically reduced rice import.
The President, who was represented by the Minister of Information and
Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
”According to the Rice Exporters of Thailand, rice imports from
Thailand fell from 644,131 tons in Sept 2015 to 20,000
tons in Sept. 2017, representing a 95% drop,” President Buhari said,
noting that self-sufficiency in rice is so important because it is the
most widely consumed staple in Nigeria, and also because Nigeria’s
daily expenditure on rice for over three decades stood at $5 million a
day!
He said Nigeria is also doing well in Millet, Sorghum and Maize
cultivation, adding: ”We are now the second largest producer of
sorghum after the US, the third in millet after India and our
breweries are now enjoying local sourcing of those commodities. For
maize, we are producing 10 million tons while we need about 13 million
tons for both human and animal nutrition.”
The President said Nigeria leads the world in the yam and cassava
production and that efforts are being made to restore and improve on
the country’s ranking in cocoa production, where it has fallen from
2nd to 7th position.
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