The Federal Government says it is targeting the production of ten million metric tons of rice in the country by the end of this year’s dry season farming.

The Federal Government has said that already a total of five million metric tons have been produced in the wet season, while five million metric tons will be produced during the dry season.

According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, this will be made possible through increasing the cultivation of the commodity to an expanse of one million hectares of land.

At the flag-off of 2020/2021 dry season, rice farming and distribution of inputs in niger state, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and the Niger state Governor Abubakar Bello are of the view that the country can be self-sufficient in rice production relying on the anchor borrowers’ programme of the apex bank.

Niger state is one of the leading states in rice production, with vast arable land.

At least three hundred and eighty thousand metric tons of rice are produced annually in the state, but even that is considered far lesser than its capacity, and it’s the reason the state government is now taking advantage of the dry season farming.

With the closure of Nigeria’s borders by President Muhammadu Buhari, rice importation has also been banned, thereby increasing the volume of local production of the commodity. But the policy has also led to a hike in the price of rice, a concern the rice farmers association of nigeria hopes to address through its triple ‘a’ agenda.