Rice is the most economically important food crop in many developing countries and has also become a major crop in many developed countries where their consumption has increased considerably. It has become necessary to meet the demand of the world’s current population growth rate, except to increase rice productivity, wherever possible.
Rice is a staple food in Nigeria, and the country consumes almost 7 million tons of it annually. This is quite a lot of rice, and in order to keep up with demand, the federal government has decided to imported huge amounts of the grain.
According to research carried out by the African Development Bank, about $35bn is spent on food imports annually across the continent. This is despite the fact that Africa is home to two-thirds of the world's most uncultivated land.
And also, the Central Bank of Nigeria set up a $130m initiative offering farmers who have at least 1 hectare of land loans at a 9% interest rate, which is below a benchmark interest rate of 14%.
But the main challenges encountered by rice processors in Nigeria are to find appropriate solutions for quality rice processing.
In Nigeria, rice consumption has risen tremendously at about 10% per annum due to changing consumer preferences. However, we discovered that most Nigerians prefer to consume imported rice brands as compared to local rice varieties. The reason is that most Nigerian rice processors lack adequate technology of rice processing to meet international standards.
The local producer still can't mill enough bags brought in by farmers – This call for bigger and more advanced machines, like the (240TPD Complete Rice Processing Plant200 ton/day Complete Rice Milling Machine. (FOTMA)
With these machines, the production of rice in Nigeria will be better to meet up with the demand of the population and also export to different African countries. With these machines production of rice would meet the demand of the entire population and also export if needs be.
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