Syngenta Foundation For Sustainable Agriculture, SFSA, an Abuja-based NGO, says Nigeria is the leading rice producer in Africa with 70 per cent growth in production in the last decade.
Isaiah Gabriel, Country Programme Manager of SFSA, said this in an interview with the News in Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja.
Mr Gabriel said the growth was largely due to increased demand for rice and government support for production.
He said the country had been a net importer of rice mainly due to insufficient production across the value chain, and lack of large-scale value addition.
“Milled rice production was an estimated five million metric tonnes in 2022, with a 10 per cent projected production increase by 2025.
“In the past decade, rice consumption increased by 4.7 per cent in the country, almost four times the global consumption growth.
“Due to the war in Ukraine, rice demand and consumption is expected to rise even more worldwide,” he said.
NAN reports that Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture is a non-profit organisation that focuses on supporting the productivity of small-scale farmers in developing countries around the world.
Its mission is to create value for resource-poor small farmers in developing countries, through innovation in sustainable agriculture and the activation of its value chains.
NAN
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