NEWS DIGEST – Rice farmers at Zabarmari community in Jere Local Government Area of Borno have called on the state government to provide them with access roads and modern mills to accelerate paddy rice production.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Zabarmari is one of the farming communities liberated by the military from the Boko Haram insurgents.
About 5,000 farmers cultivated thousands of hectares of farmlands producing over a million tonnes of grains like rice, maize and sorghum through rain-fed and irrigation activities.
A cross section of the farmers said that provision of modern mills would boost food production in the liberated areas and improve their economic status.
Alhaji Adawa Wakil said that they currently rely on local millers to process their produce.
Wakil said that the introduction of modern processing technologies would allow for better use of the bumper harvest this season.
“Most of the farmers returned to the farms and we are happy over the high yields recorded this season.
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“Application of modern processing technologies will add value to the produce and encourage production,” he said.
Wakil added that such technologies would also cut cost of production and lead to reduce prices.
Another farmer, Bashir Usman, explained that there were over 200 local mill operators in the area, who used metal pots and grinding machines for rice processing.
Usman said that the high cost of processing was causing a heavy drain in their pockets and push prices up.
A mill operator, Musa Muhammad, said that he run a local mill with a 10 tonnes daily production capacity.
Muhammad described the trade as lucrative, explaining that he charges between N200 and N250 per 50-kilogramme bag for processing.
Malam Hassan Muhammad, the Chairman, Rice Processors and Sellers Association, disclosed that the farmers need access road to open the area and ease movement of produce to the market.
“It is difficult to move the produce to the market due to lack of road. We relied on ox-cart for transportation. This also affected patronage,” he said. (NAN)
