Rice is nice

As news comes through of food riots in Somalia and the prices of consumable commodities rise, food security issues are given increasing prominence in the Nigerian press. A dominant story of the past few days is that the Federal Government has set aside N80bn for "medium term agricultural development". There are some reports that a chunk of the money is to be spent on importing rice from Thailand, to ensure prices do not rise. Meanwhile, State-level governments are imploring market traders not to rise prices unnecessarily.

Due to the almost complete inability of the Nigerian press to report simple facts, it is not easy to work out how much of the FGN money is allotted to extraordinary rice importation, and how much to more sustainable measures. The question of whether a huge one-off importation of rice would actually have medium term negative impact (reducing demand on home-grown varieties and threatening local production) does not seem to be considered. Elsewhere in the papers today, I read that an Ofada rice plant is shortly to be commissioned in Ogun State, creating 500 jobs. This is good news.

The issue is that with rice as an example, far too much production is small-scale only-just-beyond subsistence with antiquated milling/par-boiling methods. Much more could be done to improve production methods by encouraging larger-scale facilities. In the rice business, as in other sectors, there are vested interests in the importation trade that need to be challenged by the govt.

Meanwhile, it seems like Malawi is setting the pace in the agricultural sector on the continent.