To reverse policy on local production of rice will be suicidal- Ugwu

Ebony Agro Industry Limited, one of the companies producing quality rice in Ebonyi State was visited by the members of Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) as part of the programme of the CBN seminar for the association held in the state late last month. The Chairman of the company, Engineer (Chief) Charles Ugwu, whose company produces Ebony brand of parboiled rice, explained while interacting with journalists that the company is one of the 17 rice mills funded by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2008 as a result of rice shortage occasioned by the global economic meltdown.

He is of the view that the Federal Government is on the right track in focusing on agriculture and he is optimistic that the country will soon be self-sufficient in rice production and other staple food items, very soon.  He took time to address journalists’ questions.  Excerpts:

The price of locally produced rice is still very high?

Normally, when there is shortage of raw rice like now, during the planting period the price of raw rice is high but when there is harvest during the dry season the price will come down.  It is until the time of harvest that the price of rice will change. so when the harvest comes, which  will start in November , that goes on till around January , there will be enough rice. This mill, for instance,  will run at a hundred percent capacity at that time , cost will  then be lower  and therefore price will  then come down .

More so, the good thing is that in the next farming circle, the next harvest, when the people see the farmers who had made money, many people will go into farming and that will make raw rice available more. I believe in the next circle there will be an oversupply of rice for production. Many people have embraced farming, many people now in Ebonyi State, Enugu State and in fact everybody now see that there are opportunities in rice farming and other food items.

Some people are suggesting opening the nation’s borders for unrestricted importation of rice. What is your view on this?

The Central Bank of Nigerian (CBN) has taken position against unbridled importation of rice and the Federal government has agreed with that policy. We are pleading that in spite of the fact that the price of the rice is high for now in Nigeria, in the next circle it will come down, I am sure about that. Please, he Federal Government should not open the door for import, if you do it, you will destroy everybody, you will destroy all the efforts that the Nigerian farmers have made, with the investment that we have made and then you will start all  over again from the begin. Please, that isn’t the right thing to do.

We urge Federal Government not to change the fiscal policy. Government should stay with the ban on the importation of rice through the land borders. We should work together to sustain the policy. Now, the quality of what we are producing compares with the best in the world  It is a matter of time the price will eventually come down  but if you change the policy now  and reduce the import duties and allow the import ( the Indians are lobbying you , telling  you that there is sulphurs in India)  then we are not helping ourselves  as a nation.

Some people even said that they are even promising to sell 200 million tonnes to the country at 200 dollar per tonnes. This will be suicidal.

How many people are engaged in this rice mill?

We have 124 persons at the moment people working , and  28 of them are graduates  and most the rest are skilled workers  and unskilled women from  this locality. We are very comfortable here  with the women with us because they are  working hard  for us.

What is your take on the problem of one season rice farming in Nigeria?

It is not the right way to go. The right way to go is to create irrigation, in any place we have water, like here, we create a small well, a small dam,  so that we will have water for dry season farming.

Particularly in the south, people believe enormously that  they do not need irrigation, this is false in the sense that when you have sun in the dry season, that is when you have the best growth , in the raining season when you have water you have cloud cover like now , the rate of the growth of plant is very limited. So, irrigation is the way to go and in the South East we must embrace irrigation if we are going to be food secured.

Ninety per cent of what we are consuming now is coming from the North from Taraba to Benue to Gombe even cassava are brought from Cross Rivers State. So you can see that South East is food unsecured. We need irrigation for farming to be food sufficient here.

Therefore it is necessary for all state governments in the South East towards improving efforts local food production.