I'm surprised at myself for being surprised at the gap between the amount of rice we demand and the amount of rice produced. Something definitely has to be done to make production and local supply more seamless. I'll love to know what you think can be done.
I'm surprised at myself for being surprised at the gap between the amount of rice we demand and the amount of rice produced. Something definitely has to be done to make production and local supply more seamless. I'll love to know what you think can be done.
I don't think we can ever meet demand for rice through local production, even if we eliminate all the current bottlenecks such as insecurity, lack of mechanization, poor quality inputs, etc - and it is not the worst thing in the world. There is nothing wrong if we have to import rice to plug the gap in supply. After all, it is literally why trade exists - for you to sell what you have in excess of and buy what you need but are in short supply of. So what do we have in excess of in terms of agriculture? A certain crop called cassava of which Nigeria has over 70% of the world's supply and can be processed into numerous products including food, flour, animal feed, alcohol, starches for sizing paper and textiles, sweeteners, prepared foods, biofuels and bio-degradable products. But yet, we have less than 1% of the global trade in these products. Imagine we up our game in processing cassava even before we even increase production - that is more than enough jobs and forex generated to pay for rice to be imported and still have left over. The priority should be getting cheap food - food security - rather than chasing this myth of food self-sufficiency.
I'm surprised at myself for being surprised at the gap between the amount of rice we demand and the amount of rice produced. Something definitely has to be done to make production and local supply more seamless. I'll love to know what you think can be done.
I don't think we can ever meet demand for rice through local production, even if we eliminate all the current bottlenecks such as insecurity, lack of mechanization, poor quality inputs, etc - and it is not the worst thing in the world. There is nothing wrong if we have to import rice to plug the gap in supply. After all, it is literally why trade exists - for you to sell what you have in excess of and buy what you need but are in short supply of. So what do we have in excess of in terms of agriculture? A certain crop called cassava of which Nigeria has over 70% of the world's supply and can be processed into numerous products including food, flour, animal feed, alcohol, starches for sizing paper and textiles, sweeteners, prepared foods, biofuels and bio-degradable products. But yet, we have less than 1% of the global trade in these products. Imagine we up our game in processing cassava even before we even increase production - that is more than enough jobs and forex generated to pay for rice to be imported and still have left over. The priority should be getting cheap food - food security - rather than chasing this myth of food self-sufficiency.