In a bid to boost rice supply for Nigerians, Joseph Nnunu, chairman of Abakalike rice, Ebonyi region, has charged the Federal Government to provide critical agricultural infrastructures needed by farmers to boost productivity Rice Milling Machine .
‘‘The major challenge we face in agric sector is unavailability of tractors, parboiling machine, drying machine, access roads, boreholes to mention just a few,” said Nnunu in a statement made available BusinessDay.
He applauded the effort of the government in conjunction with United Nations to encourage more Nigerians to embark on farming in order to reduce high rate of scarcity of food, stating that farmers have failed to increase their productivity owing to the lack of modern machines and technology in the sector.
Similarly, Innocent Mbey, managing director, Ainotrans Energy believes that rice milling is capital intensive. ‘‘We need aid from the government in the provision of necessary machines for the production of rice in the state,” he said.
“Better machines in the production can equally enhance more standard quality. The level at which Abakaliki rice are being patronized is still at average percentage; this is due to the fact that the level of output by we farmers are not meeting up with the high demand of our products by consumers,” said Mbey.
He urged the government to deploy the media to sensitize citizens on the need to patronize locally made goods.
‘‘Abakaliki rice is seen as being expensive compare to foreign rice as a result of lack of machines in place thereby involving almost 80 percent of human power in the production of the rice in which the cost of paying for this labour are expensive compare to when machines are used in the production Rice Milling Machine,’’ he added.
In a bid to boost rice supply for Nigerians, Joseph Nnunu, chairman of Abakalike rice, Ebonyi region, has charged the Federal Government to provide critical agricultural infrastructures needed by farmers to boost productivity.
“This is one major reason that the cost of buying foreign rice is cheaper than ours. Government should encourage exporting our locally made product like the Abakaliki rice by providing them easy access to these infrastructures and place an outright ban on the importation of foreign rice in the country,’’ the chairman said.
Similarly, Innocent Mbey, managing director, Ainotrans Energy believes that rice milling is capital intensive. ‘‘We need aid from the government in the provision of necessary machines for the production of rice in the state,” he said.
“Better machines in the production can equally enhance more standard quality. The level at which Abakaliki rice are being patronized is still at average percentage; this is due to the fact that the level of output by we farmers are not meeting up with the high demand of our products by consumers,” said Mbey.
He urged the government to deploy the media to sensitize citizens on the need to patronize locally made goods.
