Local paddy rice processors beg for training in Jigawa
1m farmers grow bio-fortified crops in Nigeria – Harvestplus
Though parboiling and milling of paddy rice is one of the fastest growing small scale businesses in Jigawa State, owing to increase in the production of the crop, majority if not all of the processors ventured into it without formal training.
Most of the processors engaged in parboiling and milling rice rely on the traditional procedure of boiling the grain before milling it for the production of processed rice that is free of stones and other debris.
Hadejia zone is the hub of such business in the state, being the area where the crop is largely produced, though, despite the concentration of the processors, the available market for the commodity is limited to some local government areas within the zone. This is because they hardly produce enough to supply other markets Dr Paul Ilona, the Country Manager of Harvestplus, an international agriculture organisation, says over one million small holder farmers grow biofortified food crops in Nigeria.
Ilona disclosed this in Ibadan on Tuesday during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He said no fewer than six million people consumed more nutritious foods from bio-fortified crops in the country through the efforts of Harvestplus to address malnutrition.
“Our on-farm yield increases from biofortified crops estimated at 20 per cent over local varieties. Over 8,000 persons are estimated to be employed directly or indirectly by investors in the bio-fortified sector.
“We have trained over 200 extension agents now, continuously rolling out trainings on good agricultural practices and quality processing of biofortified products,” he said.
Ilona said the beyond Hadejia.
This reporter, who visited some of areas, gathered that majority of those in the business follow the traditional way of processing the commodity, particularly the parboiling procedure.
Daily Trust gathered that some of the millers processed as much as 60 bags of paddy rice daily at the peak of production while at some other period the production drops to as low as 30 bags.
Speaking to our reporter, one of the rice processors, Alhaji Awaisu Umar, said he did not know about any other effective procedure of processing paddy rice than the traditional way.
“We process our paddy rice using the traditional method. We have never received any training or assistance from either government or any private sector concern. “Lack of exposure to new techniques of processing paddy rice into polished rice is a great setback for our inclusion of bio-fortified foods into the HomeGrown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP) of government was one of its latest achievements.
According to him, Harvestplus developed and released six varieties of vitamin A cassava in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the National Root Crop Research Institute in Umudike.
He said Harvestplus has also developed and released eight varieties of vitamin A maize in partnership with IITA and the Institute for business.
“In the past, many organisations from the private sector, mostly NGOs and other international donor partners promised to give us some form of assistance and training but that is yet to happen,” he said.
Also speaking to Daily Trust, another rice miller, Yahaya Umar Latafa, said he did not acquire any formal training apart from his traditional knowledge of processing rice. He said after parboiling the rice for eight to 10 hours, it will be dried and winnowed before milling.
According to him, for the parboiling of 30 bags of paddy rice to be effectively done, he needed a truck load of firewood which they usually bought at the cost of N16,000.
On how they get their supply, Latafa said they buy from farmers through their agents saying, they buy a bag of paddy rice at the cost of N8,500 to 9,000 depending on the season. Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State.
The country manager said his organisation released two varieties of orange sweet potato, rich in vitamin A, in partnership with the International Potato Centre (CIP).
He said that Harvestplus developed over 25 innovative vitamin A cassava and maize based food products, 10 of which were now fully commercialised.
“Our current advocacy efforts are led by 15 advocates in the academia, 17 traditional rulers, 21 women leaders, 25 policy makers and 26 celebrities,” he said.
Ilona described biofortification as a natural process different from food fortification.
“Their concepts are similar, but their applications differ. In food fortification you introduce new essential nutrients into foods, but in bio-fortification, the plant produces its nutrient directly and naturally,” he said.