More on rice - Nigeria’s staple food.
During this global food crisis, particularly rice scarcity, Nigeria could have been in better situation if it had been able to back policy statements with honest action.
Check this out:
In 2004, Ondo state governor signed MOUs with China and Thailand on rice cultivation in the state. An excerpt of the report by Dayo Johnson in Vanguard in 2004:
GOVERNMENT of Ondo State has signed a memorandum of understanding with Thailand and China for the establishment of rice processing and cassava factories. The projects are estimated to cost over 60million dollars. They are fallouts of the recent business trip of Governor Olusegun Agagu to the two countries. Source
This week Nigeria announced it will spend some 700 million USD (80 billion naira) for some half million ton of rice. Soure: Thailand.
The government spokes person announcing the deal was the same Ondo state governor Agagu. He said:
“Thailand is supporting a rice producing group (Stallion Group) in large scale rice production in Nigeria because this is one of the medium term solutions that are to be put in place immediately in order to make sure that in the next one, two or three years, we would have got to certain level of sustainability on rice as a commodity, taking into consideration our heavy dependency on it.â€
I wonder what happened to the $60 million-rice-MOU Agagu signed with Thailand in 2004? How many other states spoke about starting rice plantations and have failed to deliver?
About the same time Ondo state signed its MOU with Thailand, Uganda embarked on a similar project - today the country’s rice output has risen 2½ times!
Rice production is expected to reach an astonishing 180,000 metric tons this year, up from 135,000 in 2006 and 102,000 in 2005. Consumption of imported rice, meanwhile, fell by half from 2004 to 2005 alone, and by half again from 2005 to 2007.
Why is it tough in Nigeria to ‘breath life’ into ideas - like the cultivation of locally grown rice? Is this too difficult to accomplish?
When will Nigerian administrators stop making empty policy statements and taking ‘knee-jerk measures’, and start being truthful with information and socially responsible in action?
