Abakaliki Rice, Key To Ebonyi Agro Revolution

According to NewsWatch Times......

Having discovered Ebonyi State’s comparative cost advantage in the area of agriculture, the administration of Governor Martin Elechi is leaving no stone unturned in ensuring that the sector takes the front seat in driving the economic development of the state.

A lot of coordinated programmes have been put in place to consolidate the foundation laid by the previous administration of Dr. Sam Egwu, himself an agriculturist, to take advantage of the natural resources such as arable land, and ensure that Ebonyi remains one of the food baskets of the nation.

The name Abakaliki is synonymous with rice production. That is why the phrase “Abakaliki Rice” is fast gaining popularity. The old image of a city with guinea worm infestation is fast receding to oblivion.

Abakaliki, long before the creation of Ebonyi State in 1996, had gained prominence as the city with the highest concentration of rice mills in West Africa. The Abakaliki Rice Mill complex, a business enterprise owned by private individuals, boasts of over 300 mills where they process and MARKET rice to buyers who come from all over the country and beyond.

Areas like Ikwo, Abakaliki, Izzi, Ebonyi, Afikpo South and Ivo councils are noted for massive rice farming. The rice farmers from these areas usually take their paddy (unprocessed rice) to the mills for milling, or sell to the millers. It was a booming business that equally had multiplier effects on the state. For instance, the boost in the rice business gave rise to a thriving haulage/transport sector and accounted for the early growth of Abakaliki as an urban area. Years later, it became the capital of Ebonyi State.

Secretary to the Ebonyi State Government, Chief Fidelis Mbam told Saturday Newswatch that Abakaliki rice, before the civil war, was known in far away Senegal.

“Since the civil war ended, oil boom put paid to agriculture; it has eliminated agriculture indirectly. Everybody wants money, money, money; nobody is interested in making sure that we go ahead to improve or even hold on to what we have. So this administration has decided that we can still be good farmers; that we are still good producers of staple food in Nigeria – rice.

“Nigeria has been importing billions of Naira worth of rice. But you know the poor masses still need our Abakaliki rice. Incidentally, our rice and our yam are very natural, because of our soil. Though you still have those that want the foreign rice, majority (of the people) are now complaining that the foreign rice brands are tasteless. But this one can be eaten without stew (sauce). For that reason, we added more value; we now produce more rice and have added more value to the rice.

“Why should we not take up the challenge of asking the Federal Government to stop the importation of rice? For that reason we imported and installed three giant 5 tons per hour rice milling machines from Satake of Japan,” he said.

To substantiate the SSG’s claims, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Development, Elder Steve Orogwu, said: “Ebonyi rice has unique taste that is satisfying; Ebonyi rice is very nutritious, it contains carbohydrate, it contains protein, even some vitamins. Besides, the brand is very nutritious, and is even extracted and packaged for further industrial use.

“I think it has to do with the salty nature of the soil and uniqueness of the production itself because the water from the Cross River basin which constitutes the basin of rice production in Ebonyi State actually provides the salty environment in which rice grows, thereby producing the unique taste,” he explained.

Ebonyi has, therefore, remained the hub of rice production in Nigeria, and is very strategic to the realisation of the Federal Government’s agenda of attaining rice sufficiency by 2015. The state government is currently building rice clusters with ultra modern rice mills in each of the three senatorial zones. The rice mill clusters are located at Osso-Edda in Afikpo South LGA; Ekpo-Omaka in Igboji, Ikwo LGA and Iboko in Izzi LGA.

In addition, a private investor and former Minister of Industries, Engr. Charles Ugwu, has established a 30 tonnes per hour rice mill at one of the rice mill clusters in Ikwo Local Government Area. The company is already producing high quality rice known as “Ebony Rice” which is consumed within and beyond the country, and in fact adjudged one of the best in the country today. In addition, the United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) is building about 3 tonnes per hour rice processing plant in Iboko, Izzi Local Government Area of the state.

On the ability of Ebonyi rice farmers to meet the demand for paddy production given the huge capacity of modern rice mills being installed by the state government and the private sector operators, Orogwu said the government was trying to expand production of paddy in the state.

“Currently, we are discussing with a Vietnamese-based company called Agro-Tech Nigeria Ltd for investment in paddy rice production up to the amount of US$58million, about (N9.280 billion) in Ebonyi. The arrangement is such that the government provides 10, 000 hectares of farm land for paddy rice production and also N200 million and then Agro-Tech Nigeria Ltd will provide the equipment from Vietnam and UK, and other logistics.

“So we are in arrangement to ensure that we increase paddy rice production to meet up with the demands of the business,” he said.

Orogwu said by the time the rice mills are fully operational, they would provide thousands of jobs to Ebonyi youths aside boosting the economy of the state.

Investigations by Saturday Newswatch revealed that the public private partnership between the state government and Agro-Tech (Nig) Ltd will bring a revolution to rice production in Ebonyi through the establishment of large scale commercial rice and other processing facilities. It will also guarantee food security, employment, infrastructure, human capital development, capacity building and rural development programme of the state.

Already, the Federal Government recently designated Ebonyi State as rice processing centre for the South East and South South geo-political zones of the country.

In order to facilitate the development of the three rice clusters as well as to overcome the environmental challenges posed by the Abakaliki Rice Mill complex, the state government in 2010, directed the rice millers at Abakaliki rice mills to relocate their mills to any of the three clusters or any other place of their choice outside 15 kilometers radius from Abakaliki, the state capital. They were given a deadline of May 3, 2012 to relocate, but the relocation deadline was later made elastic due to on-going construction work at the three clusters.

However, even before the deadline, some of the rice millers went to court to stop government from ejecting them from the Abakaliki Rice Mill complex. It was therefore, based on the petition of the millers that the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Enugu Judicial Division, directed Ebonyi State Government to hold on in the bid to relocate the rice millers. But the final ruling was eventually made in favour of Ebonyi State Government though the rice millers have appealed the judgement.

But the state government is not relenting in its aggressive transformation of rice farming in the state. Just recently, the governor took some farmers on a tour of China and Vietnam to learn new techniques that would boost rice production in the state.

Addressing the people of the state on his return, Elechi announced that the state government had placed an order for multi-million naira agro machines including trans-planters and combine harvesters from China and Vietnam.

He also confirmed that a water pipe manufacturing plant valued at over N200 million would be established in the state by a Chinese firm to commence production before the end of the year. He said that the pipe factory would reduce cost of procuring pipes for water reticulation from the two mega water schemes at Oferekpe and Ukawu to other parts of the state by 40 percent.

“If you want to plant your rice in up and area, you don’t need a nursery; you drill the grains and wait for rain to fall. When the rain falls, they will sprout and grow. That is not new here; we have been doing it for over 20 years. But the new thing is the trans-planter which moves like a crab, picking up seedlings and sowing them in straight rows.

“We made up our mind to buy that. They drill, they trans-plant, and there is the combine harvester; as they cut, they thrash, and in no time they have finished a whole field of rice farm. So that, to my understanding is a done deal because these are the areas that our farmers find not so pleasant; planting and harvesting, and of course the farmers lose a lot of money because of high cost of labour. We are determined to cheapen the cost of labour so that more people will do more rice planting and make more profit,” he explained.

Elechi, who expressed gratitude to Nigeria’s Ambassador to Vietnam, Mathias Okafor, a native of the state, for facilitating the visit, stated that his delegation returned with the full catalogue of all the different machines.

“What we are going to do in the next one week or so is to bring together those we trained in Songhai, those we sent to Singapore and those who went to China and Vietnam; we will review all the lessons we learnt from these centres and agree on our action plan so that it will not be a question of talking, talking, talking. We want to see it in action. The rice mills are already in place waiting for grains, the grains must come so that everybody will have something to do”, he said.

It is hoped that the misunderstanding between the government and rice millers will soon be resolved to maintain the increasing tempo of rice production in the state. Ebonyi has indeed grown in reputation as one of the food baskets of the country, particularly rice production. And Ebonyi rice otherwise known as “Abakaliki Rice” has unique qualities which makes it a popular brand in the country.