Food Security: Nigeria To Unveil Maize Pyramids After Launching Rice Pyramids

As part of its efforts to achieve food sustainability and security in Nigeria, the Federal Government has disclosed that it will soon unveil maize pyramids as it unveiled mega rice pyramids.

Gatekeepers News reports that Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele made the disclosure on Tuesday in Abuja, at the launch of rice pyramids which were built with one million bags of rice paddy.

“We have other events like the unveiling of maize pyramids by MAAN and the unveiling of inaugural rice pyramids in the South-South and South-East zone lined up for the year. We will surely be beckoning on you Sir to grace these events,” Emefiele hinted while commending President Muhammadu Buhari for making agriculture one of the focal points of his administration, which according to him, is the reason for the successes recorded under the CBN’s Anchor Borrower’s Programme which was launched in the early days of the President’s administration.

The apex bank governor noted that the stacks of the “rice pyramids provide undisputably and unassailable evidence of significant progress under President Buhari’s food security initiatives.”

The Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, he said, “has catalyzed the rural economy and has built a sustainable framework for financing smallholder farmers in Nigeria. The Programme has developed an ecosystem among all nodes of the agricultural value chain and these linkages can be better optimized through synergy among all stakeholders.”

Emefiele added that a Strategic Maize Reserve has been established with the stock of maize submitted as loan repayment by Nigerian farmers.

He explained that “this will provide a buffer for price modulation for the poultry and feed mills nationwide. A total of 241,656.76 MT was aggregated in the 2020 wet and dry seasons, out of which 217,218.53 MT has been disposed to 18 millers and poultry farmers through the Poultry Association of Nigeria. The program was able to stabilize the poultry and livestock sectors during the pandemic and saved the industry and consumers over N10 billion in raw material costs.

He added: “Taking a cue from our success in the rice value chain, we commenced the ‘Brown Revolution’ last year as our mantra for the transformation of the wheat value chain in Nigeria. Wheat is the 3rd mostly consumed grain in Nigeria after maize and rice. It is estimated that we only produce about 1 per cent (63,000 mt) of the 5-6 million mt of wheat consumed annually in Nigeria. This enormous demand-supply gap is bridged with over $2 billion annual importation of wheat.

“As a result, wheat accounts for the second-highest food import bill in Nigeria, thereby putting pressure on the nation’s foreign exchange reserves. We have concluded the 1st major wet season wheat farming in Plateau State and planted over 100,000 hectares of wheat across 15 States in the 2021 dry season. This strategic intervention will herald a progressive reduction in our wheat import bills over the coming years.”

On sustaining rice production, Emefiele said: “We are currently exploring a new 10 Classified as Confidential rice seed variety with (Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria) RIFAN that has potential to deliver over 8 tons per ha. The pilot programme should commence in the 2022 dry season, and it has the potential of being the game-changer for the rice sector in Nigeria.”