President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday said the Federal Government was taking steps to put an end to rice importation into the country.The President made the disclosure while receiving the report of the Northern Economic Summit, which was organised by the G-20, led by a former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana.The G-20, comprising some prominent northern politicians, who supported Jonathans bid to run for office in the build up to the April 2011 presidential election, had on March 17, 2011, organised the first Northern Economic Summit in Kaduna.The group, in its report, asked Jonathan to guarantee the "provision of substantial funds to facilitate exploration activities for oil and gas in the Chad Basin, Benue trough, Bida Basin and Sokoto-Rima Basin, among others."Sounding confident about his administrations ability to put an end to the importation of rice, Jonathan pointed out that the country had adequate arable land that could, if optimally cultivated, "grow enough food for Nigerians and even feed the rest of Africa."He advised lovers of foreign rice to prepare to travel abroad to purchase the commodity."If you have exotic taste for foreign rice, then be prepared to fly your private jet abroad to buy it, as I will make a major pronouncement on rice in my budget speech to the National Assembly soon," the President said.He dismissed foreign rice as lacking in nutrient, noting that "after it has been preserved with much chemicals for over 10 years, the commodity is again polished on its way to Africa."Meanwhile, the Federal Government has concluded arrangements to collate data on all farmers in the country.The move is part of efforts aimed at setting up a farmers database and ensure abundant food supply and even distribution of incentives to farmers in the country.Speaking at the sensitisation meeting of stakeholders on the national database in Abuja, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Ezekiel Oyemomi, said the era where only few farmers benefited from governments assistance was over.He noted that with the knowledge of the number of farmers as well the size of their farms, it would be easy for the government to distribute incentives to them equally.Oyemomi said, "If we dont distribute incentives to farmers effectively, we have failed. Because we do not want to fail in our duties, we must ensure that we know who gets what and at what time."The transformational agenda on food security will only be achieved if the food providers get assistance from the relevant authorities on the right basis, and this can only be achieved if we have all their data."He, however, warned stakeholders against sharp practices in the collection and collation of information on the farmers, which would be fed into the database.
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