Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo has stated that Nigerian rice would compete favourably with any brand in the world.
According to him, Nigerians would soon start seeing the manifestation of some of the reforms taken by the Federal Government in the agricultural sector as the country would soon start producing local rice.
Osinbajo made this remark in Abuja on Wednesday during an interactive session with some middle level civil and public servants on the ease of doing business.
He said if Nigerians can consume what the country produces locally, poverty and unemployment would be easily tackled.
He said the government was mindful of this development and would do everything within its powers to encourage local farmers to improve the output and quality of local price.
Osinbajo said, “It is worrisome that locally produced rice is still expensive than imported rice from India, China and Thailand.
“Rice produced in these countries, are subsidized by their respective governments making rice from the region cheap and affordable.”
“By subsiding rice production for farmers, more jobs are created. We are planning to introduce some kinds of assistance to our farmers in due course. Our rice will have to compete with any rice in the world. We will hold meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture every day”, the Acting president said.
