World Food Day: Stakeholders Rally Nigerians To Eat Local Rice For Food Security

Nigerian atom farmers, millers, and improvement partners, connected Thursday, called connected citizens to clasp locally produced atom arsenic a nationalist effort to fortify nutrient security, make jobs and revive the cultivation economy.

Speaking successful Abuja astatine lawsuit to people the 2025 World Food Day, the National Chairman of the Competitive African Rice Forum for Sustainable Development, Peter Dama, urged Nigerians to prioritise homegrown atom implicit imported brands, saying the prime of section accumulation has improved importantly implicit the years.

He said the run to “Eat Nigerian Rice” it is simply a corporate committedness to nationalist resilience and economical independence.
Dama explained that Nigerian atom has reached a competitory standard, with tiny and ample mills crossed the state present equipped with precocious processing machines, including destoners, polishers, and colour sorters.

He said the days erstwhile section atom was known for impurities are gone, noting that the manufacture has evolved with amended exertion and improved hygiene standards.

However, helium warned that the manufacture continues to look superior challenges that endanger its progress.

Among the pressing issues are precocious accumulation costs, the rising terms of fertilizer, deficiency of irrigation systems, and insecurity successful farming communities.

He added that import work waivers connected overseas atom person weakened section competitiveness, leaving galore farmers incapable to retrieve their investments oregon prolong production.

He said, “Our advocacy is simple, we are calling connected Nigerians to devour what we produce. Nigerian atom is healthy, it creates jobs, and it strengthens our nationalist nutrient security. The epoch erstwhile section atom was known for impurities is gone. Today, our mills are equipped with polishers, destoners, and colour sorters that conscionable planetary standards.

“We person been appealing to authorities to trim the outgo of fertilizer, enactment irrigation, and halt the import work waivers that marque overseas atom cheaper than ours,” helium said. “Farmers person produced and the atom is there, but they cannot merchantability due to the fact that accumulation costs are excessively high. The terms of fertilizer unsocial is present betwixt 65,000 and 75,000 naira. No husbandman tin past nether specified conditions.”

“In the past, young Nigerians earned a surviving done atom farming,” Dama added. “They paid schoolhouse fees, built homes, and supported their families from it. But today, insecurity, precocious costs, and clime challenges person pushed accumulation down to astir 7 oregon 8 cardinal metric tonnes. We are determined to rebuild that capacity, and we are asking Nigerians to basal with america by eating Nigerian rice.”

He urged the national and authorities governments to enactment the section atom worth concatenation by providing affordable recognition facilities, subsidized fertilizers, and functional irrigation infrastructure.

He said entree to low-interest loans would assistance farmers header with the existent 27.5 per cent commercialized lending rate, which has made cultivation concern unsustainable.

The “Eat Nigerian Rice” campaign, formally launched successful Abuja connected Wednesday is simply a Market-Oriented Value Chains for Jobs and Growth successful the ECOWAS Region (MOVE), a task commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), co-financed by the Gates Foundation and the European Union (EU), and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH,

The run seeks to beforehand Nigerian atom arsenic a awesome of nationalist pridefulness and a cardinal operator of agrarian employment.

According to organisers, the question is designed to assistance Nigeria execute sustainable nutrient accumulation by strengthening worth chains, improving husbandman incomes, and encouraging consumers to marque conscious choices that enactment section producers.

Stakeholders astatine the Abuja lawsuit agreed that Nigeria’s atom manufacture embodies the tone of this year’s theme. By choosing section rice, they said, Nigerians tin assistance unafraid jobs, support the environment, and fortify the system from within.

The “Eat Nigerian Rice” campaign, they added, is not a seasonal run but a semipermanent vision, to marque section atom a nationalist penchant and a planetary modular for prime and sustainability.