Farmers allege expired rice in circulation

The Lagos State Chapter of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) has warned Nigerians on the circualtion of expired inported rice. Mr Segun Atho, the chairman of the chapter, gave the warning when speaking with newsmen in Badagry, recently.According to Atho, some importers deliberately bring in expired rice to make profit to the detriment of consumers and advised all the tiers of government to encourage local production.He said that local production of rice had not been encouraged by successive administrations in spite of the favourable climate and arable land. 'If government policy is favourable for local production of rice, then, we can talk about its sustainability and self-sufficiency in the country,' he said.Atho said that Nigeria was producing between 1.5 million and 2.5 million metric tonnes out of about five million tonness needed to meet local demand annually.He said that the wide gulf gave importers opportunities of bringing in all sorts of rice into the country and advised Nigerians to eat more of local rice because of the high nutrition.According to him, the demand for foreign rice is the reason for the low production of local rice.The RIFAN chief advised the government to provide farm inputs like chemicals, storage facilities and the market links to aid local production of rice.It was reported that the Federal Government has promised to stop the importation of rice in the next two years to encourage the local production and consumption.
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