The billions of dollar used in the importation of rice into Nigeria will be put into other productive use as Dangote Rice, a subsidiary of Dangote Group, is to launch in Sokoto, Sokoto State.
The multi-million naira 25, 000 hectares of rice outgrowers scheme, with a prospect of creating hundreds of thousands of jobs for rural communities’ residents.
The group’s President, Aliko Dangote, said at the weekend the company would on Wednesday launch a pilot project of 500 hectres by Gonroyo dam, in Goronyo community. Gonroyo dam is the second largest in the country, after Kainji.
Governor Aminu Tambuwa will be at the ceremony where seedlings will be distributed to local farmers, who will plant the seed after which Dangote Rice Company will buy from them for milling and final processing.
Sokoto State is the second after Jigawa of the 14 states spread across the area where Dangote Rice plans to operate outgrower scheme to empower local farmers and create job opportunities for rural dwellers and reduce migration to the cities.
According to statistics from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) estimate rice demand in Nigeria reached 6.3 million MT in 2015, with only 2.3 million MT of that demand satisfied by local production.
This local production shortfall leaves a gap of 4.0 million MT that is being filled through formal importation. By end of this year, Dangote Rice plans to produce 225,000 MT of parboiled, milled white rice. This will allow us to satisfy four per cent of the total market demand within one year. Our model can then be successfully scaled to produce 1,000,000 MT of milled rice in order to satisfy 16 per cent of the domestic market demand for rice in the next five years.
Due to the economic crisis, domestic prices for agro-commodities have risen in the last 12 months, making local agriculture an attractive investment. Dangote Rice Ltd seeks to take advantage of this economic trend and the favourable policies laid out in the FMARD’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda.
With this and other rice planting schemes across the country, Nigeria might soon attain rice production sufficiency in the next few years.
