How long have we been rearing about local rice production?

Gov Agagu was quotes while briefing the press:
“One thing that should be recognised is that Nigeria has not been caught unawares. The budget we presented is a food emergency budget. All the interventions of the president has taken cognizance, long time ago, of an iminent world food crisis against which Nigeria has positioned itself to protect its citizens through enhanced production.”
There are so many problems with what the government said. Government cannot tell Nigerians that it has been promoting local production of rice because there is no evidence to support that. If local production has been receiving such support, we would not have found ourselves in this massive importation of rice scenario. If local rice is available, then let the government not bother about importing rice, but encourage its citizens to change to local rice.