amaechi1:
Colossal failure yet Vietnam and other countries are begging nigeria to open a failure.
Sorry!

callthefred:
I am not a journalist but I have chosen to write this little article to expose my understanding of the brutal and cowardly border closer that the government has embarked upon.

As a farm owner and someone who deals major on local contents, many do not seem to understand my position to this and I hope the wider view that nairaland provides would help get people of thoughts reason along.

For now, the government of Nigeria seems to believe its own lies and illusion that closure of borders are the best way to driving local contents, a big FAT lie.

We hear talks of patriotism but what is patriotic in leaders who feed free on public purse and move around free at the expense of hardworking citizens? How would they understand that their so called move has even led to almost 100% increase in the cost of local produce they claim to promote? How do you plan to promote a product only for price to double?. The simple fact here is those is power are clueless and instead of admitting, as usual they play the blame cards.

As a rice farmer, we pay for labour all through the process, the only government intervention comes in seeds and lands for farming, these components amount for less than 5% of farming itself, planting, weeding, fertilizer and harvesting are the real deal. Government refused to invest in small scale technology and machinery to help these farmers. There is no magic that the smallest rice transplanter would do in one hour what a man would do in 10 hours and you would pay less for the transplanter.

Nigerians should understand there is no patriotism here, it is simply government trying to return favour to billionaires who funded the campaigns and are owners of rice mills. The real problem is production cost, if we can only tackle that, local rice would be so cheap that foreign rice will loose value. We all saw how Bigi has forced Coca Cola to revert the price of 60cl coke back to N100. That's simple economics no grammar.

I appeal to all Nigerians to reject this scam from the government and lies and demand better value. If we refuse to believe their lies, they would be forced to act right or leave the stage for people with plans.

The dangers now is if those countries should retaliate we would be worse off for the carelessness of a few in power. Vietnam buys more cashew from us than the rice we buy from them, same with many other countries. If only we support farmers and we totally bring down production cost, we would produce more and cheaper than imported without having to engage in trade wars with anyone. That was all Globacom did and they forced MTN to bring down their crazy costs and billing rates.

God bless Nigeria.

SarkinYarki:


Only people who have never ran a successful business before will support such a lazy Idea like Border closure

clarocuzioo:
God bless you, this is exactly what I was telling a Buharist today.

Buhari carried billions of Naira and shared to people in the name of Rice grants, and is looking to manufacture results by any means necessary and possible, that's disaster.

Who in this present age still does manual agriculture and expects huge results?

Instead of the Federal government to invest in mechanised agriculture, improved seedlings, establishment of complex rice processing Mills and silos for grain storage all over the nation, and other improved mechanization and mercinaries needed in a 21st century agriculture, but know, they want to use a 1960 model of doing things and achieve a 21st century result, it's like a man planting alligator peper and expect to reap coconut, it's impossible.

Let zombies and their online MISCREANTS keep fooling themselves, as long as people still use manual farming in this era of mechanization and improved technology, Nigeria can NEVER attain self sufficiency in rice production.

Let Buhari keep wasting money in the name of helping farmers.

Rubbish.

NGpatriot:



I thought the government-funded and is still funding rice farmers, mechanized farming and rice mills all over the country?

Were you people not celebrating chocharis rice mill and mechanized farming just a few weeks ago on NL? The funding for Coscharis Farms came from the FG. Was that a failure or blunder too?

All you people do is spew hate and ignorance with zero facts and sense.

clarocuzioo:



First of all the rice mill is just for the processing not planting, we are talking about full mechanization from planting to processing.

Regardless of what part of the rice food and value chain is, rice mill and processing remains the most critical aspect of rice farming, you don't get stones and badly produced rice because of modern milling process.

Secondly, it's only Coscharis rice mill for the entire south east and south south region?

That's exactly my point, it is not enough. what is the output Coscharis rice mill, what is the daily consumption of rice in Anambra alone, when you answer these questions correctly, accurately and sincerely, you will understand why local rice is still missing today in Nigerian markets.

The right question to ask is "coscharis rice farm is it fully mechanized or are they still doing manual planting and hope to achieve National sufficiency.

Kindly show us evidence of the government buying machineries for planting and harvesting, before processing, please do that.

It is a cashless project that provides farmers the needed farm inputs, which comprise improved seedlings, water pumps, chemicals and other services like land preparations also under the project, mechanised services was also be made available to farmers,’’ he said.

https://www.thexpressng.com/2019/05/21/nigeria-hits-8m-metric-tonnes-in-rice-production-as-cbn-disburses-n40bn-to-nifan/

NGpatriot:
Border closure is not the beginning or the end of our economic woes, but it's definitely a task that must be done regardless of what issues farmers are facing or who and what cronies are benefiting or not from the closure, we still can not leave our border ajar while smugglers from all over the world smuggle not just rice into the country, but also weapons, drugs, dangerous and expired merchandise, cars, trucks, petroleum products, textiles and so on.

Textile smuggling and cheap Chinese imports from China killed our textile industry, most of the cars in our auto showrooms are ally smuggled cars that we did not collect 1 kobo duty on, we practically lose hundreds of billions revenue every year.

When smugglers boycutt our official point of entries, they deny us valuable revenue, they undermine our economy and sovereignty.

Understandably, there are farming issues that Nigeria must address, but this is not about rice or any singular factor.


Stop being selfish and one-sided, the picture is bigger than your rice or your farm.

NGpatriot:
Border closure is not the beginning or the end of our economic woes, but it's definitely a task that must be done regardless of what issues farmers are facing or who and what cronies are benefiting or not from the closure, we still can not leave our border ajar while smugglers from all over the world smuggle not just rice into the country, but also weapons, drugs, dangerous and expired merchandise, cars, trucks, petroleum products, textiles and so on.

Textile smuggling and cheap Chinese imports from China killed our textile industry, most of the cars in our auto showrooms are ally smuggled cars that we did not collect 1 kobo duty on, we practically lose hundreds of billions revenue every year.

When smugglers boycutt our official point of entries, they deny us valuable revenue, they undermine our economy and sovereignty.

Understandably, there are farming issues that Nigeria must address, but this is not about rice or any singular factor.


Stop being selfish and one-sided, the picture is bigger than your rice or your farm.

NGpatriot:
.
..







Yes, we are not there yet, but don't say we are not trying or on the right track because we are.

SarkinYarki:


Textile smuggling didn't kill our textile industry , lack of support infrastructure and electricity did . If the country was serious about local production that first thing it would have fixed is our local refineries which would immediately save us billions of dollars used to import petroleum that was drilled here in the first place

Nigerian textile and garment industry loses billions due to cheap imports


According to World Bank estimates, Nigeria's textile and garment industry loses billions of US dollars in garments and textiles each year because of cheap imports that are smuggled into the country. Local production has dropped to a mere 40 million US dollars annually.

The cheap imports, particularly from China, are smuggled into the country from Benin, where they flood the market and drive local textile traders out of business. Add to that chronic power shortages, a rise in production costs and mills closing and it is no wonder that dilapidated factories are not a rare site in once proud textile production hubs like Kano and Kaduna, employing more than 350,000 people.

Nigeria's woes started ten years ago when the country opened its doors to foreign trade: Aided by a WTO deal that allowed China unhindered access to its textile market, Chinese textile merchants started their large-scale textile imports to Nigeria. Though foreign nationals are not allowed to trade through retail channels, locals get recruited for a cut on profits, thus bypassing the law.

https://fashionunited.uk/news/business/nigerian-textile-and-garment-industry-loses-billions-due-to-cheap-imports/2015062516856

Government refused to invest in small scale technology and machinery to help these farmers. There is no magic that the smallest rice transplanter would do in one hour what a man would do in 10 hours and you would pay less for the transplanter.

Nigeria's rice yield is one of the lowest globally at 2 tonne per hectare, relative to 4 – 7 tonne per hectare in Asia.

Nigeria's mechanisation rate is low at 0.3 hp/hectare, relative to India 2.6 hp/hectare, Vietnam 2.2hp/hectare and China 8hp/hectare. The FAO identified mechanisation as a key input for developing the agriculture sector in Sub-
Saharan Africa, recommending a minimum
8 of 1.5 hp/hectare.

guass:
Baba is ANTI- CHRISTIAN. He promised to open the borders after NEW YEAR. I will believe him if he can close the borders during SALLAH.