Written by Collins Nnabuife, Abuja Friday, 25 May 2012
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, has frowned on the rate at which Nigerians consume foreign rice, stressing they are 15-year-old foreign reserved grains.
Dr Adesina said this while showing newsmen the locally-made Benue rice, at the secretariat of the ministry, in Abuja.
The minister described the foreign grains as “better for livestocks,” stressing that some Nigerians imported those grains for selfish economic interest.
He implored Nigerians to patronise the locally-produced rice, which he described as more nutritious than its foreign counterpart.
He also described the Benue rice as a long parboiled rice, stressing that the rice would compete favourably in international community.
The minister also displayed a locally-fabricated cassava processing machine, which was manufactured in Jos, Plateau State.
He said the machine would cost N180,000, adding that the ministry was collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to make funds available for farmers.
Dr Adesina had earlier announced the local purchasing order (LPO) for cassava grits for Nigerian processors.
While announcing the LPO, the minister said “the quantity of cassava grits require annually is about 480,000 metric tonnes,” adding that the stakeholders had been assured that 10 per cent was the starting point, since it had been proved that 50 per cent inclusion was possible.
Dr Adesina said the emerging opportunity now opened to cassava farmers in the area of substituting 10 per cent of maize with cassava in poultry feed must be utilised.
via Tribune http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/41509-nigerians-eat-15-yr-old-foreign-reserved-grains
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