Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state says his administration has raised rice production in the state to 3 million tonnes annually to meet local demand.
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Ganduje said this on Monday in Kano at the launch of indigenous rice value-chain promotion programme organised by the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) in partnership with R CONNECT.
He attributed the development to the agricultural policies of his administration, which he said had created significant impact on farmers’ production capacity especially in local rice production.
” Today, I am proud to state that because of the activities and policies of this administration towards agriculture, rice production in Kano has reached the level of 3 million tonnes a year, ” Ganduje said.
Represented by his deputy, who is also the Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Nasiru Gawuna, the governor said before the inception of his administration in 2015, rice production was very low but from then, it grew by over 75 per cent.
According to him, under the Anchor Borrowers Programme alone, about 127,000 farmers have benefited in Kano state.
Ganduje faulted critics of the Federal Government who were in the habit of dishing out false statistics with regards to government policies on agriculture in Nigeria.
“We, in the sector and the farmers know very well about the good impacts of those policies on agricultural development.
“When these programmes started, state governments were in contact with farmers to examine this change,” he said.
The governor who described the programme as timely in promoting local rice production and patronage in Nigeria, called on farmers to cooperate with Central Bank of Nigeria and those institutions that gave loans to derive maximum benefits of the programmes.
Earlier, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, appreciated the effort of the state in terms of its growing figures on rice production which rose from 25 per cent to almost 100 per cent.
Nanono, in a message, said that the state was the highest rice producer in Nigeria because out the over 400,000 hectares of rice cultivated in the country, 127,000 hectares were from the state.