Contrary to its claims that it had started rice production and processing in the state, the Imo State Government has neither a rice farm nor a milling factory for the production of the staple food, investigations by our correspondent have revealed.
While distributing hundreds of bags of rice to some elderly citizens and members of the All Progressives Congress in the state last December, the government had claimed that it had begun the production and processing of its own rice, branded “Imo Rice International,” which was currently being packaged for sale locally, but with plans to begin its export in the nearest future.
However, according to findings, the Imo State Government, which has been accused of importing the rice from Thailand, has not also shown any established proof that it has its own rice farm or milling factory for processing harvested rice.
Also, it was gathered that some bags of the branded rice are still being stockpiled at the International Conference Centre, Owerri, where the 50kg bag of the rice was officially unveiled by Governor Rochas Okorocha.
Okorocha, in his address on the occasion, had said the decision to start the production of indigenous rice was borne out of his administration’s commitment to providing sufficient food for the people.
The governor had further described the feat as “a dream come true,” saying it would go a long way in supporting the efforts of the Federal Government in abolishing the sale of foreign rice and promoting local rice production in the country.
On her part, the state Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Mrs. Ugochi Nnanna-Okoro, had informed the gathering that the Federal and state governments collaborated to train and empower a total of 3,242 farmers in rice farming.
She added that the performance of the farmers in one year had resulted in the production of more than 2,000 metric tons of packaged and processed stone-free parboiled rice.
Investigations by our correspondent at the Oguta Council Area, one of the four local government areas, which the state government had listed as the locations where the rice was being cultivated and processed, revealed that only some rice plants without grains were beginning to sprout up on the farm.
There was no milling factory or processing plant sited in the area.
However, a farmer in the area, Ike Odogwu, said that they embarked on the rice farming to show that the rice being produced in the North, particularly in Kebbi State, could equally be cultivated in Imo State.
It was gathered that the state government had been offering assistance to some farmers through the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrower’s Rice programme launched in the state, but farmers under the aegis of the Rice Farmers’ Association claimed they were not part of the government programme.
The state government, it was gathered, had accessed N9 billion from the CBN as approved for the state by the Federal Government for the anchor borrower’s project, aimed at offering loans of about N210,000 to any desirable person willing to access it.
However, the farmers claimed that though they had yet to access the loan, the state government’s claims about producing rice in the state should not arise because it lacked the facilities to embark on such a venture.
It was also learnt that the multi-billion naira World Bank-assisted irrigation project in Egweleze Umukara in Ihitte Uboma Council Area, where the state government also claimed it had started rice production to aid commercial rice farming in the state, had long been abandoned.
Our correspondent gathered that all the farm equipment as well as administrative and other office buildings had become dilapidated, just as the connecting farm roads had all been washed away and overgrown by the forest.
According to a former staff of the World Bank project, who pleaded not to be named, it would have been worthwhile if the current administration in Imo had resuscitated the farm and irrigation project, rather than spending part of the CBN loan on repackaging imported rice.
“Neither the World Bank with a controlling share of 60 per cent, nor the state government has taken any step to salvage the situation for more than 20 years it has laid comatose,” he said.
The National Secretary, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, Chief Livinus Ngwangwa, told our correspondent that the members of the association were not part of the state government’s Anchor Borrower’s programme because politics was involved.
He said, “It became difficult for the CBN to recover its money with the programme carried out by the state government. Portfolio farmers were the ones who got the loan. This made it difficult for the CBN to recover its loan. It was based on this that the CBN decided to open another window.
“The Anchor Borrower’s programme was a very good concept of the Federal Government, but not properly handled by the state government because genuine farmers were not identified in the programme. That’s why the CBN opened another window, which is now private sector driven and directly handled by the association.”
Ngwangwa, who is also the chairman of RIFAN in the state, called on the Imo government to resuscitate the broken down dams and rice mills, rather than playing politics with food production.
“Imo State Government should be thinking of revamping these broken down rice mills and irrigation projects littering the local government areas,” he said.
The Imo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Prof. Nnamdi Obiarieri, however, denied that the state government imported rice from Thailand.
He said that the government provided tools and cash for the farmers through the Anchor Borrower’s fund to cultivate their rice farms.
“Government never imported rice. So, rice is available and the farmers also exist. Government has to do it through people,” Obiarieri said.
On the loan to rice farmers, the commissioner said not everybody was qualified to get the fund, adding, “The CBN loan is not a free fund; you have to be qualified to access it.”
Efforts by our correspondent to speak with the Anchor Borrower’s Programme Coordinator, Dr. Eddie Uche, proved abortive, as he did not pick calls made to his phone.
Uche did not also reply text messages sent to him.
