Following the closure of the Nigerian border and consequently, hike in the price of the local rice, a senior rice specialist at the Africa Rice Centre, Philip Idinoba has revealed reasons behind the hike in price.

According to him, the reason a bag of imported rice costs as much as its local variety is as a result of the cost of production in the rice value chain in Nigeria.

Speaking with Tori.ng, the rice expert stated that the cost of production of local rice is quite high, adding that the government was formally working on three tracks – improving quality, improving quantity and improving efficiency along the value chain.

“The efficiency along the value chain is tied down to these three factors. For instance, a rice miller in Anambra State will have to go to Niger State, moving from village to village to mop up the rice paddy that will be taken to Ebonyi State or something like that.

“The cost of transportation alone is very high. Also, these millers do not have electricity supply most of the time. The cost of servicing the generators, like supplying diesel, is very expensive. In addition, they do not have a good mechanism to run these mills. Any little problem, they will have to look for an Indian who works with Mikano to replace the parts. So, they are still facing serious problems in all the mills.

“Then, we take it back a little to the farms. The cost of production per hectare is also very high. We don’t have technology for transplanting or harvesting. The variety we are using can take up to nine tonnes. Only a few farmers get up to six tonnes, because the production environment is not so well-developed.

“One can have a variety that can produce nine tonnes. But, if one does not level the ground in a way that one can control the water, and the water will rise into the plot. If you put 9:20 fertilizer blend, only 20 per cent of the fertilizer will be utilized. Others will be wasted.

“That way, farmers will not get the benefits of using that quantity of fertilizer. But, if you can get to an environment where the land is well irrigated, bring in water, take out water, you can apply the quantity of fertilizer needed and you will get plant optic at above 70 per cent. Then, one would be sure of getting the yield one expects. But, we don’t have that here. So, what people are doing is very little to get what they can get.

“You can plant with fertilizer today, and it doesn’t rain for the next two days. If it is Nitrogen, then the fertilizer is wasted. So, at production level, people in Kebbi and Sokoto States, some of them use like 250,000 per hectares of land. As you go down South, cost of production is dropping, because most of the farmers are not using very intensive methods.

“If you go to Anambra State, for instance, they just throw the rice to the fields and just expect that everything will grow well. But the people in the North, like Kano, Jigawa, Sokoto and Kebbi States, try to prepare their fields. They transplant and do all the things they need to do and prepare for eight tonnes. Improved productivity increases the yield. We don’t have technology for planting or harvesting. This is one of the bottlenecks the Nigerian government is having”, he said.

He added that one thing the government would have done would have been to subsidize the cost of fertilizer. “This is what we call mass subsidy on the fertilizer. Rather than the farmer picking the fertilizer at the N10,000 a bag, the farmer would have been getting it 50 per cent the price”.

He however advised the government to pay the remaining 50 per cent to fertilizer manufacturing companies under some kind of arrangement.

“These are the indirect involvement of institutions like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other agencies involved in agriculture. It is mass subsidy because the money is not given directly to the farmers. But somehow the government is cushioning the production of rice in the country. So, the cost of producing rice in Nigeria is still very high. We can reduce the cost in two ways. First, through subsidy and two, increasing productivity, so that the amount of output will get higher per unit area”, he said.