Browsing: Food and Agriculture Organisation

Rice in Nigeria

New mega mill a big boost to Nigeria’s rice value chain

Countries
  • Nigeria has commissioned the large-scale Integrated Rice Mill to expand domestic rice production and achieve self-sufficiency.
  • President Muhammadu Buhari says the move is in line with his government’s mandate to achieve food security and boost incomes.
  • Nigeria is the largest producer of rice in Africa, producing about 8.44 million tonnes annually. It is followed by Egypt, Madagascar, Tanzania and Mali.

Nigeria has commissioned the large scale integrated rice mill as the West African country expands domestic rice production to achieve food security and boost incomes for millions of farmers.

President Muhammadu Buhari said the move aligns with his government’s objective of achieving food security and enhancing rice value chain. The new rice mill is located in Sheda, Kwali Area Council, within Abuja.

“We have witnessed the rapid increase in domestic rice production from the incentives given to farmers and processors over the period as a resolution of leveraging our potentials, …

Section of model farm - Galana/Kulalu Food Security Project. Kenya has introduced mechanisation policy to help improve food productivity. www.theexchange.africa

Kenya turns to mechanization to improve food production

Agribusiness

Large-scale farmers usually own specialized and custom-built equipment and keep up with recent technological advancements. Those in the medium-scale farming system mostly hire machinery while for small-scale farmers, mechanisation is limited to a few farm operations like land preparation. Other operations are done manually. Private service providers offer mechanisation services for small scale farmers where the use of machinery is very low in relation to the medium and large-scale agricultural production systems.  

Most of Kenya’s livestock is raised in extensive systems with communal grazing and free-ranging of rain-fed rangelands. Intensive production is practised in the high rainfall areas, semi-intensive systems are found in semi-arid lands and extensively in arid areas. The use of mechanised livestock production systems is very low. However, the potential for mechanisation is high to meet the growing demand for livestock and livestock products.  …