Rice Export: Obiano Meets Value-Chain Farmers

Gov Willie Obiano has said that his administration is focused on achieving its vision of making the state a major exporter of rice in the country.
The governor disclosed this during a meeting with farmers across the Rice Value Chain at the Governor’s Lodge, Awka, aimed at fashioning strategies to boost rice yield per hectare across the state and what government can do to fast-track the process.

Addressing the farmers, Governor Obiano said that although the State has achieved food sufficiency in rice production, his ultimate goal was to ensure that the State produces enough for export.

According to him, his government intends to realize this by the provision of high-yielding variety, assistance in bringing in more people into rice production and assistance with land clearing. And that the state government has evolved plans to phase out local millers but noted that this can only be done when an agreement has been brokered between the local producers and the mechanized millers on the standard price for offtake of paddy.

In attendance at the meeting was the Commissioner for Agriculture Mechanization, Processing and Export, Mr. Afam Mbanefo.