Much ado about Niger rice
In spite of being a leading rice producing state, Niger is still at the bottom rung in rice processing as mostly women and children struggle with the traditional method with dire consequences. Malama Salamatu Muhammad re-arranged the logs underneath a huge aluminum pot and gently stoked the fire until she achieved the required flame. And with a long rolling pin, she stirred the paddy rice soaked in the aluminum pot. She leaves it for the length of time needed for it to parboil and went to attend to other matters.
She is the chairperson of the Women Rice Processors Association of Kwakuti, in Paikoro Local Government Area of Niger State. Kwakuti is synonymous with the local but stone less rice that has come to rival the foreign variety even before the recession with the consequent skyrocketing in the prices of the staple making it the exclusive preserve of the rich.
Although Kwakuti’s mother local government of Paikoro is not within the rice belt of the state, which include Katcha, Lapai, Lavun, Gbako, Edati, Mokwa, Wushishi, Agaie, Gurara and Magama local government areas, the state drives its popularity as one of the front liners in rice production from the sleepy community.
The attraction for Kwakuti rice is in the innovativeness of its teeming processors, who are majorly women; and Salamatu leads this pack of over 100 members as chairperson.
She is 50, but learned the business of rice processing at the tender age of 10 and at a time when mortar and pestle were the key processing tools. She went down memory lane to those days when parboiling involved soaking paddy rice in cold water overnight for the husk to split open for easy removal the next day. Then the water is drained and the rice spread out in the sun to dry.
The traditional method, she said, is laborious and time consuming. There are also more side effects to the process in kernel defects such as cracks, chalkiness and immaturity.
However, Salamatu’s old method is hardly different from the current method most rural women use despite the advancement in technology. In what seems to be an improved process, the paddy rice is immersed in water and heated for hours.
The process, according to experts, has inherent stress which also affects milling quality. “It is still the traditional method with little improvement,” 40-year-old Musa Mohammed, the village head of Kwakuti concurred.
Salamatu said though soaking time is reduced through this method, processors could only come up with limited number of bags per day and this she also explained, depends on the weather. She said processors are more constrained during the rainy season. “We do the parboiling and drying in the open, so any day it rains, everything stops,” she explained.
Our correspondent witnessed this apparent downside to the processor’s activities at Kwakuti penultimate Monday, when without the usual signs, rain suddenly began to fall.
Salamatu and her lieutenants battled to save the parboiled rice spread in the open to dry. It was a herculean task especially as there were no drying slabs. They did salvage most of it but some got immersed in the sand and washed away.
She also spoke of the challenges such as energy sources for parboiling, inadequate water and assistants.
Our correspondent learnt that processors require a lot of firewood for the long hours the soaked paddy stayed on fire and also for steaming. Across the state, processors use aluminum or drum pots for parboiling.
The aluminum pots come in different sizes. “There are those that have capacity for 75 kilograms of paddy and others that can take two paddy bags at a go,” Salamatu explained.
Salamatu said processors also use stalks of sorghum, millet and paddy husk as alternative energy sources. There were heaps of firewood all around, especially in compounds, where rice processing is the major trade.
On whether she is aware of the consequences of mass felling of trees, she merely shrugged off, querying, “What do you want us to do?”
Experts warn that unless government intervened by making processing technology available, the mass rice production initiative would continue to be under threat.
They said although large quantity of paddy is produced in Nigeria, the country is still one of the leading importers of the staple. Niger State’s example aptly reflects this position. The state is believed to be the largest producer of rice. It also tops in the implementation of the World Bank/ Federal Government Fadama III Additional Financing across six states where rice is the key element in the transformation agenda. Chief Tayo Adewumi, the National Coordinator of the programme had thumped up the state for being at the forefront in the implementation of all its activities.
The Fadama’s strategy seeks to attract private investment in processing and milling, and other commercial aspects of agriculture around nucleus farms, with associated smallholder linkages such as out-grower schemes and contracting farming arrangements.
The head of the state coordinating office, Engineer Kutigi, had disclosed that a total of 970 hectares of rice farms were cultivated during the 2015 rain-fed season. This, according to him, includes 700 hectares in seven production clusters in wet season and 270 in 2015/16 dry season cropping in three production clusters.
A total of 3,610 hectares of rice and sorghum, he also said, were cultivated during the 2016 wet season made up of 1,810 hectares for rice and 1,800 hectares for sorghum in 43 production clusters, while 3,000 hectares were targeted during the dry season farming.
He said the successes recorded would not have been possible without huge financial commitment on the part of the state and federal governments as well as the World Bank as N1,161,251,101.25 was disbursed to implement various activities of the project during the period under review.
He said out of the amount, the state government paid a total of N80 million counterpart funds made up of N60 million for 2014 and N20 million as part payment for 2015 counterpart contribution with a balance of N40 million for 2015 and N50 million for 2016 already approved.
Also, the National Programme Coordinator of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Federal Government’s rice and cassava value-chain development programme, Dr Ameh Onoja, disclosed in an interview on the sideline of the IFAD/FG National Trade Promotion and Knowledge Fair in Minna recently that the state is leading in the implementation of its programmes, in which rice is also a key component. The other states where IFAD activity is also operational are Anambra, Benue, Ebonyi, Ogun and Taraba.
Like Fadama, the IFAD/FGVCDP seeks to enhance on a sustainable basis, the income and food security of poor rural households engaged in production, processing and marketing of rice in the target states and local government areas.
There is also the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)-initiated Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) which targets14,000 farmers, with about N2 billion already disbursed from the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF) in the state.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had also disclosed during an inspection of rice farms in Doko in Lavun Local Government Area of the state, that a total of one million tonnes of rice was expected from the cluster of rice farms across the state, courtesy of the CBN-initiated Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.
However, many are worried that the state could not harness the outstanding feat into an impactful endeavour. “It is states like Kebbi, Lagos, Kaduna and Ebonyi that are taking the glory, where Niger should be shining example,” Malam Mohammed Bida, a rice farmer observed.
Experts blamed the situation on the absence of a well articulated policy by the state government to encourage the private sector into rice processing in the state. They also blame it for lacking the political will to follow up laudable Federal Government’s programmes that target mass rice production.
Bida specifically pointed at the nonoperation of the rice processing plant built and donated by the Korean government in the state last year to buttress his point.
The project, which was started in 2008, has the capacity of processing 1.5 tonnes of rice per hour (1.5t/h) with parboiling, drying, sorting and packaging facilities and can be increased to 3.0t/h.
Governor Abubakar Sani Bello promised during the commissioning of the project, which was also expected to provide 10,000 jobs for the youths, that the mill would be put to use soon.
“The development was in fulfillment of my pledge to explore all avenues to attract investors and projects to the state, especially through Public Private Partnership (PPP), initiatives. The state Ministry of Agriculture will ensure the proper management of the rice mill by engaging competent hands to manage the facility,” he had promised.
About a year down the line, the mill is yet to open for productive activities, and local processors have to make do with the laborious and time consuming traditional method, which has stunted the growth of the state and its people despite being a rice production hub.
For now, merchants from across the country target the state for paddy rice, which they take out to process and package to their advantage.