Ishaku Jilemsam, the National Vice President, National Rice Producers, Processors, Millers and Marketers Association of Nigeria has lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for the ban on rice importation.
Mr Jilemsam spoke at the opening of a one-day capacity building workshop organised by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEPC, on Friday in Jos.
He said that rice farmers in the country would remember the president for the impact the ban on foreign rice had made on local rice production.
The theme of the workshop is “Production, harvesting, storage and processing of rice for export competitiveness”. The event was attended by stakeholders in the rice farming business.
Mr Jilemsam said the group would never forget Buhari’s administration for the foresight exhibited with the ban.
“We deeply appreciate what the Federal Government has done so far.
“That is one thing I’m going to remember President Buhari for. I score this government high on the ban and Anchor Borrowers Programme in agriculture.
Mr Jilemsam also commended NEPC for organising the workshop for rice farmers.
He urged the participants to imbibe the best practices they would learn from the workshop to help maximise production for export standards.
“The message is, they should embrace this good agronomic practices that we are talking about today.
“So, instead of doing that large field, if you can concentrate on bringing in all the best practices, you’ll be able to get high yield within a small field.
Also, the Regional Coordinator of NEPC, Samson Idowu, called on the stakeholders to take advantage of the technical sessions to improve on their performance and ensure maximum production of their crops to meet export standards.
Mr Idowu further said that the objective of such workshop is to ensure that adequate information was passed to the stakeholders to help the farmers achieve their goals.
“So, one of our objectives is to ensure that we build the stakeholders capacity in a gathering like this.
“This will ensure that they are able to produce quality standard rice that is not only good for local market but export.
“Another objective is to ensure that we work hard to reduce the gap between production and supply so that we have enough for export.
“The third objective is that the various challenges confronting the sub-sector will be discussed here and then we advocate ways of mitigating them,” Mr Idowu said.
The Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Yakubu Idi, who declared the event open, commended NEPC for its efforts at growing the economy through such workshops.
Mr Idi said that such workshops help to provide employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed youths in the country.
The commissioner, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Nanlop Gupiya, advised the youths to make most of such opportunities.
NAN
