Follow Us on Google
By Chinyere Anyanwu, [email protected]
To stem the skyrocketing cost of rice, the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) has called on the Federal Government to restart the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) as well as address insecurity across the country.
The Vice President of the group, Mrs. Nnenna Ejim, disclosed this recently while giving reasons for the recent hike in rice prices.
According to her, the current hike in rice prices were caused by the prevalence of the rice blast disease, insecurity, farmer-herder conflicts and inflation of input cost.
She stated that, “government policy on anchor borrower was not implemented last year because of election, and other factors like COVID-19 impact have created a huge gap in rice cultivation, hence, the hike.
“The Russian-Ukraine war is affecting us seriously because they are the greatest provider of fertiliser and other input, which we are having difficulties getting such input the moment.”
Mrs. Ejim said, “the way forward in ensuring a drastic reduction in the price of rice is that the government should prioritise the security of its populace both in the farms and around communities.
“Farmers should be given inputs at subsidised rate and should also be enlightened on climate-smart agriculture so that they will not risk their lives or production trying to cultivate areas with lots of floods.”
The Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), a brainchild of the CBN, was initiated in November 2015 to foster economic connections between smallholder farmers and anchors.
In total, approximately 4.67 million farmers engaged in maize, rice or wheat farming benefited from the programme while a total of N1.12 trillion was disbursed to 563 anchors, with N670.4 billion repaid and N450.90 billion outstanding.
Findings reveal that in 2024, the price of rice has risen to N90,000 per 50kg bag. This increase is due to decreased production capacity and rising demand.
