Text of an address by Governor David Nweze Umahi of Ebonyi State on the occasion of the official visit to the state by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele; Governor of Kebbi State in his capacity as the Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on Rice Production, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu; and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Innocent Audu Ogbe.
Protocols…
On behalf of the good people of Ebonyi State, let me express my most profound gratitude to His Excellency, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele; to my dear brother, the Governor of Kebbi State, His Excellency, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, and to the Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbe, (the best agrarian friend that Ebonyi State ever had) for the friendly cooperation and professional partnership that you have extended to the farmers of Ebonyi State.
I must also express deep appreciation to the very professional and competent staff of the CBN, particularly those who have been connected in one way or other with the Ebonyi rice revolution. The evolving partnership between our farmers and the Bank, especially in respect of the Anchor Borrowers scheme, could not have gained traction but for the professionalism and dedication of the staff of the Bank who have tirelessly and patiently engaged our farmers at every turn in the laborious process.
From the bottom of my heart, I welcome you all to Ebonyi State, the Salt of the Nation.
The significant progress that we have made in our determination to raise the quantum of rice produced in Ebonyi State from a modest annual average to a projected 190,000 metric tonnes of rice paddy this year could not have been possible without the financial support of the Bank.
For instance, the Two Billion Naira (N2,000,000,000) loan we secured earlier this year has gone a long way in giving thousands of Ebonyians the enablement to scale up their participation in the rice production revolution. It has assisted in lifting many families from abject poverty. It has been a source of empowerment to many of our youths who would otherwise have remained jobless, hopeless and dangerous to society. It has, above all, made our dream of food security a realistic one.
The Bank filled a major gap for us. Although we needed and still need more, but what we got was precisely what has made it possible for our farmers to cultivate more than 30,000 hectares of land during the just ended wet season of 2016. This was achieved through providing funds and agro inputs to more than 10,000 farmers whereby each famer was able to cultivate between 2 to 3 hectares. In addition to that impressive effort, both IFAD and FADAMA III also played a welcome role by assisting our farmers to put 6,000 hectares and 2,000 hectares of land, respectively, into rice cultivation in the 2016 wet season.
This level of mass participation is unprecedented in our history, and our ambition is to double this capacity going forward. The benefits are now clear to every citizen. But only the leverage that the CBN is uniquely qualified to give to our people that will encourage and motivate them to push for our set target of 600,000 metric tons of rice paddy per annum.
We have also invested significantly in the technology that we hope will further improve our production and processing capacity in the emerging modern rice industry in Ebonyi State. For example, we procured about forty tractors from John Deer between April and June this year. These have been placed at the disposal of our farmers on affordable hire-purchase terms. The period of redemption is a maximum of four years based on an installmental payment staggered over that period.
Equally, the three major rice mills that are established in each of the senatorial districts in Ebonyi State have also received serious attention from our administration. Specifically, the parboiling components which we have procured are being presently installed and attached to each of the rice mill plants.
Your Excellencies, Honourable Minister, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the challenges that we confront in driving our ambition are enormous.
Some of our best and most productive parcels of land are located in flood prone areas. For instance, I have here a brief but brilliant report and map of a study conducted by the HOD of the Department of Crop Production and Landscape Management here in our local University, Dr James Utobo. The location he mapped out is 5,000 hectares of prime land at Echara in Ikwo Local Government Area.
The area in question is, according to the expert, “wetlands with soil that is largely loamy and ranging from medium to high fertility…most of the farmlands are in close proximity to Cross River and Ebonyi River, and frequently experiences a yearly flood – typically from July to September, thereby hampering farming activities.”
It is our strong belief that rice can be produced yearly in this location, and of course as the Honourable Minister has consistently advocated and encouraged Nigerians, we have adopted FERO 44 as our major brand of cultivation.
We propose to commence first production from April to July and the second production will be timed to commence when the flood has evacuated from the land in October through to January.
But we need a serious injection of cash, Your Excellency, for flood harvesting during the period of flooding. And we believe that the best method might be by way of dam construction. The added benefit is that the harvested water will serve the dual purpose of being a source of irrigation and fish farming.
Clearly, we cannot do this on our own. Whilst the prospects are manifestly huge, but we hope to depend on the Bank to avail us the necessary financial backing to embark on the construction of dams ad the procurement of the essential equipment and inputs.
Furthermore, we will need support to acquire additional machinery, especially beefing up the number of tractors under operation in the state, together with the requisite farm implements, combine harvesters, expansion of our fertilizer blending plants to produce both the NPK and Urea varieties of fertilizers, at a rate that will meet the growing demand of these products in the state – it may interest you, sir, to note that our projected annual fertilizer requirements if we must meet our target of producing 600,000 metric tons of rice paddy per annum will be about 720,000 bags of 50kg. The present capacity of our local fertilizer blending plant is nowhere near meeting this demand. But of course it remains a foundation of which we are very proud indeed.
The establishment of a herbicides research and production laboratory is also one of our great needs and aspirations. Our farmers this year complained bitterly of the woeful ineffectiveness of the various varieties of herbicides that they were supplied with, particularly the selective herbicides varieties. More than ninety percent of farmers in the state eventually resorted to manual weeding, which obviously added to time and cost of production, and thus depressed their profit margins to a very notable extent.
Therefore, Your Excellency, we shall be coming to you again and we shall be appealing for the financial support to set up a herbicides research and production laboratory for both our medium and long term agricultural strategies.
The experiences of our farmers this year following the invasion of large farmlands by various species of crop pests was also a disappointment, especially as the farmers were unable to have easy access to the remedies. We need capacity building to enable our farmers have access to the best information and advice in this area.
As you can see, Your Excellencies, our ambitions are matched by the challenges and impediments that face us. But we remain absolutely optimistic that with your visit today and with the positive account of our success in spite of the many odds that beset us, the worst days are behind us.
While we thank you and your staff once again for your relentless passion, commitment and energy to the course of Ebonyi in particular and our nation in general, we look forward to many years of productive partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
