Edygrin: Why will i come to ghana?.. What for? My people just come there to make money. You call them prostitutes, who are those paying them for the sex? Nigerian men? abi sex starved ghanaians.. You call them drug dealers, are they the ones smoking/taking those drugs? Abi ghanaians. Any1 that falls victim to a yahoo boy is greedy, which is a trait every ghanaian has.

nigerian drugpeddler neva sell im matter for mexico or malaysia finish na ghana e wan from sell, shey fear go even let una president buy one once of cocaine, abi e wan sell ghana give dangote first son

It was suggested here that Nigeria is the worlds largest importer of food. Here are the top 15 in 2012.



http://www.statista.com/statistics/236265/value-of-the-leading-15-global-food-importers-by-country/

londoner:


You do know that 3m to someone who belongs to a nation of 170m sounds quite small?

You quote the number as if it is a massive amount of people.

LOL @ your logic!

Girl the number is very massive. Whether the 3m is from a population as big as that of China and India combined, it's still massive...... and they keep going there in massive numbers everyday

overhypedsteve: all he is trying to say is that why cant your country indeginously feed its small population, the population of your country is not even larger than that of lagos, only obasanjo's farm can feed you guys

so why is obasanjo's farm not feeding the people of lagos? why are lagosians enduring hunger if obasanjo can feed them? is it not in the lagos that grown up men in work clothes were fighting over fashola's fanta? is it not the same lagos that a woman staged a hunger strike? look, size has nothing to do with it. just admit the fact that Ghana is better in terms of living conditions. what is life expectancy in your country? your country is shambolic. the earlier you come to terms with that reality, the better for you amd million of other deluded lunatics in your dustbin country

Someone asked how much maize/corn Nigerian produced......It looks like Nigeria is number 14 in the world.

http://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?commodity=corn&graph=production

SantaMafia: sharaaap . who gives a fvck about what you think? and don't give that nonsense about Ghanaians hating nigerians. Nigeriuans hate Ghanaians even more so quit your self righteous foooolish attitude!

I really don't care if I am called black or charcoal. I am a black african and don't preted to be anyone else. it is not an accident that shitnigerian is a the bleaching capital of the world,huh? what better evidence of a people collectively suffering from crass inferiority complex? to the average shitnigerian, black is bad and white is good. but it does not matter how you bleach, you will always be black

so after taking that walk i decided to sit down and relax and ask myself, why is santamaria angry, why is her hand shaking while typing in anger thereby making so many simple spelling errors and then i smiled to myself and said
the underdogs are barking for attention.

IloveGH:

LOL @ your logic!

Girl the number is very massive. Whether the 3m is from a population as big as that of China and India combined, it's still massive...... and they keep going there in massive numbers everyday

No, its actually not 'massive'.

londoner: It was suggested here that Nigeria is the worlds largest importer of food. Here are the top 15 in 2012.



http://www.statista.com/statistics/236265/value-of-the-leading-15-global-food-importers-by-country/

‘Nigeria Is The Largest Importer Of Rice In The World’

Friday, 06 June 2014 17:05
Written by DEBO OLADIMEJI

Category: Business News
Hits: 307
Print




OlafareRICHARD Olafare is the President of Seeds Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria and the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Savannah Seeds And Livestock Ltd.,Jos, Plateau State. He spoke with DEBO OLADIMEJI on the agricultural transformation agenda of the Federal Government and how to ensure food security in Nigeria.

WHAT is the history of seed industry in Nigeria?

Seed industry in Nigeria started developing in 1993. I was working with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan then when we decided to have an association that will govern seed production, marketing, research and all the rest of them. There were three seed companies in Nigeria then. We had Premier Seed, United Africa Company (UAC ) and UT seed. The problem was that before then, there were not enough improved seeds for farmers to obtain good yields. Most of them were relying on their saved seeds. And some of the germplasm in terms of yield, were very low. The principal actor that brought about the seed industry in Nigeria was maize. Through hybridization, I think it was during the regime of former Head of State, Olusegun Obasanjo, they contracted the production of hybrid seeds to IITA to develop hybrid seeds for Nigeria which they did. The seed industry primarily is to produce and market improved seed varieties and sell them to farmers in Nigeria. Unfortunately, initially, the output was very low.

How did you overcome the initial challenges?

There were a lot of challenges as regards adoption. Farmers who were used to old varieties were reluctant to change to new improved ones. It was not free. They had to pay for the improved seeds. Nigerian farmers are resource poor. We were faced with market problems. We were faced with adoption problems. When you produce and you don’t have market, it is a problem. The market is the farmers, and when the farmers are not adopting, there is little profit coming in.

There were other attendant costs like other inputs that you use to produce seeds. The cost of fertilizer was very high, ditto agro chemicals. Government comes, government goes, they left their different policies. You know Nigerian governments’ policies are not sustainable. And getting financial assistance from the banks is another problem. Over the years, not many banks want to lend money to farmers. Nigerian banks are commercial-oriented. Initially, some big companies came to Nigeria like Premier Seeds. Obasanjo later sold it to Pioneer. Pioneer folded up. UAC was a big company before it folded up. At the end of the day, you find out that there was huge overhead to produce seeds. Until recent developments in Nigeria, there had been some interventions by the government but they were not sustainable.

Why were those interventions not sustainable?

There is this subsidy that ought to get to farmers, subsidy on seeds, fertilizers and agro chemicals. The principal driver there was fertilizer. Fertilizer was supposed to be a secondary input to quality seeds. Most of the fertilizers then that were supposed to get to farmers as subsidy didn’t get to them. Until about two years ago, all our resources were limited to petroleum.

What has changed in the sector?

When President Goodluck Jonathan came with his programme of agricultural transformation, it was like bringing back the hope that we thought that was lost. We started seeing green light. We embraced it and supported it under the food security programme of the Federal Government.

Before 2009, all the seed companies in Nigeria were just about eight and the production was not up to 4,000 metric tons. One single seed company in Nigeria today is producing that. The government contacted the association to produce seeds and sell to farmers. Unlike before, this present government backed us with bank guarantee of about 75 per cent of loan. Although it is a trading fund that cannot sustain us, but we don’t have any alternative. At least they help us to buy back the seeds from the farmers. Now I can tell you that we have about 69 seed companies in Nigeria.

Why do we import food items when we have the capacity to feed ourselves?

Nigeria is a blessed country. We have land and we have the ecology that can grow both swamp, irrigated and upland rice. But the breeding stock is limited. What it entails is to get large quality of classes of breeders seeds, foundation seeds to produce certified seeds. And it is these certified seeds that we give to farmers to produce large quantities of grains. At least we have about 10 millers in the country today that produce quality rice than the one they make in India, China and all that. And our own rice is even sweeter than their own. What they do is that they bring those rice that were produced over 10 years ago. All that the farmers produce in those countries, the government buys back from them. The older ones in the stores, that is the one they milled and send across to Africa whereas if we are producing on our own, it is on a yearly basis that we will be putting new rice into the market.

As it is coming out from the field, we distribute to the millers and they mill. Most people prefer that.

We have the advantage to produce some crops that can compete favourably anywhere in the world. We can produce rice, maize, wheat. The land is there, the farmers are there. Over the years, interventions come in and out. You will find out that some of the farmers are knowledgeable enough to produce these seeds and grains. What has been their problem is market. When they produce, they don’t have the market to sell. So, they are limited to subsistence farming, produce and eat. Now with the food value chain approach, we have the producer in there and the end user there. We try to link the farmers who are the producers to the users who are the millers. What is not there is how these farmers can get finance to produce. The farmers are there. It is just to encourage them to have access to facility. How many small scale farmers have access to funding? It is the big farmers, the commercial farmers, that have the access.

Almost about 70 percent of our production in Nigeria is by small scale farmers. Very few commercial farms are obtainable. If you aggregate the production of all the small scale holders, it is very big. We can produce enough to feed ourselves, it is just the will. You know, most of the things we produced in Nigeria, like maize, we feed the neigbouring countries like Niger.

What are the efforts you are making to solicit for foreign investors to partner with you?

There are Nigerian investors who are actually going into rice milling everyday. In 2009, there was one Alhaji Mohammed in Kano, he owns Homezat Farms International. He invested all his income in bringing in mills from Indian and China. He is one of the primary investors in rice milling in Nigeria. Today, he competes favourably with whatever rice that comes to this country. He invited me to the National Assembly, when he was still there serving. He said his limitation was raw materials, how to get paddy rice to feed his mill? He said that he got to know that I produce large quantity of paddy rice in Plateau and in the South West. When I got to his mill in Kano I saw the effort of this man... What he needed then was the operating cost to run the mill. He was looking for assistance from the bank. They were all reluctant. I then married him with a bank. He got half a billion naira that year as loan. He is running the factory comfortably now. We have Nigerians who have actually invested in the production of rice. What we are doing now is to reduce the quantity of imported rice into the country. At this level, the government should be able to stand on its feet and slam the door like most other countries did for importation of rice. If you know how much we spend everyday on rice importation. …Nigeria is the largest importer of rice in the whole world. We are still fighting it. When the people at the National Assembly were trying to say that because the Federal Government put embargo on rice they are losing about N300billon or so. I let them know the profits we have generated within that period. I think they have kept quiet or I would have followed it with series of facts and figures. What the farmers need is the funds to equip their mills with machinery. I think this government is bringing in about one hundred units of improved and modern milling machine to the country that they are going to distribute across.

Have you been able to address the problem of the yearly scarcity of maize?

I was a pioneer member of Maize Association of Nigeria when it started in 1992- 93. What works then was for us to coordinate the distribution of improved varieties of seeds. We coordinate the buy back of it or let the farmers do the marketing. Over the years, the challenges has been one, adoption, quality seeds is another. Financial assistance to buy fertilizers, to buy agro chemicals for mechanization is not there. So it has been up and down like that. And we have limited yields. The adoption rate was between 9 and 12 percent now. Above the lowest in Africa. The little the farmers are producing they produce for self -sufficiency. When Obasanjo in 2005 -2006 released money for fertilizers to produce maize. He encouraged our farmers. He put them into cooperative groups. He led them to the banks, they collected loans. These farmers produced. The arrangement was that the government will buy back from the farmers. The farmers produced a lot that year 2006-2007. There was a glut of maize in the country there was no market.

The price of maize came down to N1,800 per bag. The government was suppose to buy from the farmers at N3,200 to N3,600. At the end of the day it was not to be. That discouraged the farmers, the following year to go into maize production. Many of them went into other crops. It has always been like that.

This year about N48,000 metric tons of seed were distributed to about eight million farmers. So there is going to be large quantity of maize in the market. You see our taste is so high. We don’t like to taste what is produced in Nigeria that is the problem.

There is always policy summersault, how do you ensure the continuity of the transformation agenda..

The transformation agenda, the growth enhancement programme of the government to increase food security. It has gone to the National Assembly if it become an Act…We can be sure of its sustainability. We have had of some many agricultural interventions. Green revolution among others. But this one, I think the government is doing a lot of things and we are not leaving any stone unturned to put it in our legislative act to make sure that it is sustainable.

What is limiting agriculture generally is still there and has to be addressed. That is, the approach from the bank. We have to do a lot on rural development. We need good roads that can link what is produce in hinterlands to the markets. Then encourage youth to go into agriculture.

We have been recommending that at least ten percent of the National budget should go into agriculture. In advanced countries they are collecting loans at about single digit. In Nigeria it is about 25 percent. Until the government is able to address that. We have seen the enhancement programme of this present administration and their transformation programme. We are saying let it be continued. It is cheaper to bring some of these things into the country because our production cost is still too high.

Background information?

I am from Osun State, Ifewara. I am an agriculturist from University of Ife (Now Obafemi Awolowo University). I was trained in IITA on seed development and I was seconded to United Trading Company (UTC) International in Jos. When I knew that there was going to be a vacuum in the industry in 1998, that was when I started on my own. By that time the UTC had diverted from Nigeria to other parts of Africa. I had already developed UT seed. As seed entrepreneur. I registered my seeds, Savannah Seeds, that is operating as Savannah Seeds and Livestock today.

I established the industry in Jos, Plateau. Savannah Seeds and Livestock do consultancy services for government, individuals, corporate bodies and private entrepreneurs.

I have a consortium of out growers across the country. And we consult across the country. I produced seeds that we processed and packaged into 2kg, 5kg, 10kg, 25kg for the farmers to their planting.

londoner:


You do know that 3m to someone who belongs to a nation of 170m sounds quite small?

You quote the number as if it is a massive amount of people.

then why are u complaining because 2 people have been arrested. 2 out of 170 m is rear but u people are complaining. So you see wat u ar saying ain't logic.

overhypedsteve: so after taking that walk i decided to sit down and relax and ask myself, why is santamaria angry, why is her hand shaking while typing in anger thereby making so many simple spelling errors and then i smiled to myself and said
the underdogs are barking for attention.

hahahahaha why would I be angry when I'm having great fun kicking some shitnigerian azzes? look, those who live in glass houses don't throw stones,huh? hahahaha bashing shitnigeria is as easy as ABC. there is enough stuff even on nairaland to nail your dustbin country. nigeria is sinking fast and the earlier you guys come to terms with that reality the better. you can defend your country any way you can, but the rest of the world knows shitnigeria is a very sick country suffering from a terminal disease

SantaMafia: so why is obasanjo's farm not feeding the people of lagos? why are lagosians enduring hunger if obasanjo can feed them? is it not in the lagos that grown up men in work clothes were fighting over fashola's fanta? is it not the same lagos that a woman staged a hunger strike? look, size has nothing to do with it. just admit the fact that Ghana is better in terms of living conditions. what is life expectancy in your country? your country is shambolic. the earlier you come to terms with that reality, the better for you amd million of other deluded lunatics in your dustbin country

no no no, that is not how it works my man. Where did you hear that the populace of a city that has twice your GDP is suffering from hunger, do you even know the implication of what you are saying, your president would dance naked the day the economy of ghana comes close to that of lagos, and as per the woman on hunger strike, i will take it that you re plainly unintelligible and do not know the meaning of an hunger strike, only someone who have been eating enough can protest using hunger strike for it to have a meaning, so i wonder why you phoolishly brought hungerstrike to the table

[s]

overhypedsteve: no no no, that is not how it works my man. Where did you here that the populace of a city that has twice your GDP is suffering from hunger, do you even know the implication of what you are saying, your president would dance naked the day the economy of ghana comes close to that of lagos, and as per the woman on hunger strike, i will take it that you re plainly unintelligible and do not know the meaning of an hunger strike, only someone who have been eating enough can protest using hunger strike for it to have a meaning, so i wonder why you phoolishly brought hungerstrike to the table

[/s] crass crap. you are not making sense. come back after you get rid of the generator fumes that is messing up your brain and type something more sensible. I don't have time for illiterates

List of milled rice importers worldwide. China is first, followed by Nigeria, followed by the Philippines.


http://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?commodity=milled-rice&graph=imports


Milled rice production, Nigeria is 19 in the world, and gradually becoming less dependant on rice imports.

http://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?commodity=milled-rice&graph=production

SantaMafia: sharaaap . who gives a fvck about what you think? and don't give that nonsense about Ghanaians hating nigerians. Nigeriuans hate Ghanaians even more so quit your self righteous foooolish attitude!

I really don't care if I am called black or charcoal. I am a black african and don't preted to be anyone else. it is not an accident that shitnigerian is a the bleaching capital of the world,huh? what better evidence of a people collectively suffering from crass inferiority complex? to the average shitnigerian, black is bad and white is good. but it does not matter how you bleach, you will always be black

Nigerians and their inferiority complex. I guess it is in their DNA. I always laugh when a Nigerian says other people are very black. Unless Yorubas are no longer Nigerians Not that the rest are light-skinned, but the average unbleached Yoruba is not different from a South Sudanese, and most of them are even darker. The only difference is the South Sudanese don't bleach. I was just viewing a thread here about beautiful Yoruba actresses and the only thing I saw was that they were all bleached, as for the beauty part, I didn't see But the OP thinks they are beautiful because they look like Oyibo.

SantaMafia: hahahahaha why would I be angry when I'm having great fun kicking some shitnigerian azzes? look, those who live in glass houses don't throw stones,huh? hahahaha bashing shitnigeria is as easy as ABC. there is enough stuff even on nairaland to nail your dustbin country. nigeria is sinking fast and the earlier you guys come to terms with that reality the better. you can defend your country any way you can, but the rest of the world knows shitnigeria is a very sick country suffering from a terminal disease

You think we hide our problems?..Its a free country, there's Nairaland, there's Nollywood. Nothing is hidden in Nigeria. Unlike you guys that bring up fake statistics when we already know the truth (which is : Ghana is a Nobody in Africa) . It's fun kicking Nigerians azzes?.. dats a symptom of low-self esteem.

SantaMafia: but are there Ghanaians still living in that hellh0le called MUMUDOM Republic? even shitnigerians are running to Ghana in large numbers for succor. so what will a Ghanaian still be doing in that cursed country? I am only quoting obasanjo who said shitnigeria is cursed LOL

I wonder sef.Almighty Ghanaians in mumugeria. End time sign dat.

OXYGEN01: then why are u complaining because 2 people have been arrested. 2 out of 170 m is rear but u people are complaining. So you see wat u ar saying ain't logic.

The xenophobic attitude leading to the "arrests" are metted out to all 170m in general. That's the issue. For people who claim 3million is "massive", is 170m a small number?

londoner:

No, its actually not 'massive'.

LOL!

I hear you

SantaMafia: hahahahaha why would I be angry when I'm having great fun kicking some shitnigerian azzes? look, those who live in glass houses don't throw stones,huh? hahahaha bashing shitnigeria is as easy as ABC. there is enough stuff even on nairaland to nail your dustbin country. nigeria is sinking fast and the earlier you guys come to terms with that reality the better. you can defend your country any way you can, but the rest of the world knows shitnigeria is a very sick country suffering from a terminal disease

your been happy about nigeria been a sick country makes you a very phoolish person, not even Nkrumah, mandela,Ghadafi,Azikiwe,Patrick.L, and other african anti imperialists were ever happy when any single african country was down trodden, why would i want to pull up facts to prove that a brother nation is poor? That is sheer phoolishness and i ve chasticed a southafrican for that in the past, or have you heared about WASU no i dont think so, cus in your search for evidence to prove that your country is better than a country (that even a single one of its average federating unit is richer than your country) you ve lost your common sense and now all that is left is pure phoolish unfettered hate for african growth.

overhypedsteve: your been happy about nigeria been a sick country makes you a very phoolish person, not even Nkrumah, mandela,Ghadafi,Azikiwe,Patrick.L, and other african anti imperialists were ever happy when any single african country was down trodden, why would i want to pull up facts to prove that a brother nation is poor? That is sheer phoolishness and i ve chasticed a southafrican for that in the past, or have you heared about WASU no i dont think so, cus in your search for evidence to prove that your country is better than a country (that even a single one of its average federating unit is richer than your country) you ve lost your common sense and now all that is left is pure phoolish unfettered hate for african growth.

The main reason that country ain't growing.

Millet Production. Nigeria is 2nd in the world, behind India.

http://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?commodity=millet&graph=production

Palm oil production, Nigeria is 5th in the world. Behind Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Colombia

http://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?commodity=palm-oil&graph=production

OXYGEN01: They were smelling sooo bad that the police thought they were holding poisonous substances.Not the fault of the police.

ROTFLMFAO!!!!

Onua, this is too funny

londoner: Millet Production. Nigeria is 2nd in the world, behind India.

http://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?commodity=millet&graph=production

Palm oil production, Nigeria is 5th in the world. Behind Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Colombia

http://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?commodity=palm-oil&graph=production

No need for the stats. Its an insult to compare the two economy. They know the truth, the just want to feel better.

Sorghum production, Nigeria is third in the world behind the USA and Mexico

http://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?commodity=sorghum&graph=production

Peanut meal production, Nigeria is fourth in the world,behind China, India and Myanmar.

http://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?commodity=peanut-meal&graph=production

Edygrin: No need for the stats. Its an insult to compare the two economy. They know the truth, the just want to feel better.

I'm not comparing, that is why I did not provide the Ghanaian stats for the same. Sometimes, when people are misinformed about the facts and use that ignorance to perpetuate falsehood, its better to provide stats.

overhypedsteve: your been happy about nigeria been a sick country makes you a very phoolish person, not even Nkrumah, mandela,Ghadafi,Azikiwe,Patrick.L, and other african anti imperialists were ever happy when any single african country was down trodden, why would i want to pull up facts to prove that a brother nation is poor? That is sheer phoolishness and i ve chasticed a southafrican for that in the past, or have you heared about WASU no i dont think so, cus in your search for evidence to prove that your country is better than a country (that even a single one of its average federating unit is richer than your country) you ve lost your common sense and now all that is left is pure phoolish unfettered hate for african growth.

you are a little rat who's drunk on ogogoro. pan-africanism died long time ago, mor0n. did shitnigerians not "celebrate" Ghana's economy crisis in the 1980s? in fact they still talk about it, even on nairaland. so what the fvck is this modafaka spewing? fvcking loser! stupeeeeed shitnigerian. a MUMU from MUMUDOM Republic suffering from schizophrenia

you are seriously a waste of sperm and space!

lets have a toast to the scvmbag

SantaMafia: you are a little rat who's drunk on ogogoro. pan-africanism died long time ago, mor0n. did shitnigerians not "celebrate" Ghana's economy crisis in the 1980s? in fact they still talk about it, even on nairaland. so what the fvck is this modafaka spewing? fvcking loser! stupeeeeed shitnigerian. a MUMU from MUMUDOM Republic suffering from schizophrenia

you are seriously a waste of sperm and space!

lets have a toast to the scvmbag

Your economy is always in crisis. The energy you are putting in to hate on Nigeria, Use that energy and do something useful in ghana and watch your cursed economy grow.

SantaMafia: you are a little rat who's drunk on ogogoro. pan-africanism died long time ago, mor0n. did shitnigerians not "celebrate" Ghana's economy crisis in the 1980s? in fact they still talk about it, even on nairaland. so what the fvck is this modafaka spewing? fvcking loser! stupeeeeed shitnigerian. a MUMU from MUMUDOM Republic suffering from schizophrenia

you are seriously a waste of sperm and space!

lets have a toast to the scvmbag

wait pls be patient, before we have that toast i would like to ask you a question, have you seen any nigerian today, have any nigerian benefited you in anyway today, are you a little bit proud of yourself because of the hardwork of a nigerian(nairaland) if not, then i think i would join you in that toast

Edygrin: No need for the stats. Its an insult to compare the two economy. They know the truth, the just want to feel better.

hahahaha why do shitnigerians have such inferiority complex? which economies do you want to compare? it is the one on paper or the reality on the ground? the bottom line is the welfare of the people. what is the point in having a large economy on paper if your people languish in abject poverty? what is the point in having a large economy on paper if your youths are roaming about without jobs and engage in all forms of crimes to survive? what is the point in having a large economy on paper if 90% of your people survive on less than $2 a day? what is the point in having a large economy on paper if most of the money get stolen by thieving officials? what is the point in having the largest economy on paper if the vasat majority of your people can't have ordinary electricity in the 21st century? funny country funny country

SantaMafia: hahahaha why do shitnigerians have such inferiority complex? which economies do you want to compare? it is the one on paper or the reality on the ground? the bottom line is the welfare of the people. what is the point in having a large economy on paper if your people languish in abject poverty? what is the point in having a large economy on paper if your youths are roaming about without jobs and engage in all forms of crimes to survive? what is the point in having a large economy on paper if 90% of your people survive on less than $2 a day? what is the point in having a large economy on paper if most of the money get stolen by thieving officials? what is the point in having the largest economy on paper if the vasat majority of your people can't have ordinary electricity in the 21st century? funny country funny country

“The sad fact is that Ghana’s economy is in a
crisis. I do not use the term “crisis” lightly. This is
not some short term blip that will just pass over if
we can just muddle through. The problem we have
is that there appears to be an unwillingness to
face the truth and admit that we are in a crisis. In
fact, we appear to be in a state of denial. At this
rate, one should expect much more depreciation of
the cedi this year” ___ Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana