Nasarawa Gov Commissions, Distributes Rice Processing Machines To Farmers
Godwin Joseph,
Lafia
GOVERNOR Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa state, on Tuesday 17th September, 2019 inaugurated rice processing machines donated some farmers in the State.
The machines donated by the Japanese government to the rice farming communities in Awe, Keana and Obi Local Governments Areas of the state, comprised of 20 units each of harvester and thresher machines.
While commissioning the rice processing machines at Azara in Awe Local Government Area, the Governor said that his administration was determined to ensure that the State in no distant time, supplies about 25% of the total rice output in the country.
He said: “The Nasarawa State government will sustain the partnership it has entered with the government of Japan and other agricultural outfits for the realization of its supplying 25% of total rice supply in the country as the state has the capacity of producing about 320,000 metric tonnes of the commodity.”
The Governor continued that the desire of the State to maintain in the rice production partnership with stakeholders was to ensure that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s policy on import substitution is adhered to the logical conclusion.
Governor Sule thereafter charged beneficiaries of the Japanese Grant Assistance for grassroots human security project in the State to ensure judicious use of the rice processing machines handed to them, even as he cautioned that the state government would put in place a mechanism to monitor the application of the machines.
Earlier, the Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Yutaka Kikuta, said that the donation of the rice processing machines by the government of Japan was in line with the Tokyo conference on Africa recently concluded in Japan.
According to the Japanese Ambassador, “one of the embodiments of the processing machines is to curtail the high rate of loss incurred by rice farmers in processing the commodity manually.
“By using the reapers and threshers machines donated, the high rate of loss will be contained and consequently improve in the yields.”