By Michael Nnebife
An Anambra-based Industrialist and Chief Executive Officer, Wisdom Pack, Anambra Rice Processing Ltd, Bro Edwin Ejike Urebe, has appealled to the Anambra State Government to consider his proposal for rice availability and sufficiency for the residents of the state.
Bro Urebe, who made the appeal recently while having a chat with the press in his Ugbene Country Home in Awka North Local Government Area of the state, was optimistic that if the government could consider his proposal, rice would not only be sufficient for the consumption of Anambra residents, but the price would also drastically go down.
Urebe attributed the steady skyrocketing prices of food commodities in Nigeria to what he called Fulani cattle rearers’ banditry and the present governments’ lack of interest in food production.
He said, ‘In Nigeria, as it’s now, the cost of rice is supposed not to exceed N20, 000 per bag, but the major problem as it concerns rice, is Fulani herdsmen who pursue the farmers, both in the North and the East, out of farms.
‘Another problem is that the governments no longer provide interventions to the farmers and even if they want to do so, they use politicians.’
He accused the politicians of hijacking and shortchanging the interventions, pointing out that the present Federal and Anambra State Governments had done nothing as regards farming, particularly rice production, both last year and this year.
‘If the state government supports my proposal, in two to three years’ time, there will be no need for rice importation from anywhere, into Anambra.
‘In my last proposal, the price of rice is N24, 000 per bag, but due to increase in foreign exchange to Naira, we can sell a bag from 35 to N40, 000 now, if the government supports us,’ he said.
The Anambra-based industrialist, further said that this proposal required the government to explore and develop all the swampy arable lands in the state for rice production.
‘Thereafter, the government will begin an Agricultural Campaign to mobilize the youth and support them with required inputs which will be paid for by the benefitting youth to the government after harvest,’ he said.
He explained that he had begun the initiative on a personal level with five youths, whom, he said, were expected to make at least one million Naira profit each, from one round of rice cultivation that would take four to five months this year.
Urebe, who is vast in rice production and processing, also appealled to the governments to consult experts in farming, anytime they had an intervention in Agriculture, so that the objective of the intervention would be achieved.
