Duty on rice: Defaulting importers must pay – Jonathan osundefender.org/?p=209003 President Goodluck Jonathan has reinforced the warning earlier made by his Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, that rice importers who have exceeded their approved quota would not go scot-free. The President, who gave the warning in Abuja, during Agrifest, a ceremony organised by the ministry, hinted that government will collect what the defaulting importers are owing. “Nigeria, our dear country, will not be held hostage by rice importers. There will be no sacred cows under my watch. All those owing Nigeria on rice import duties must pay,” the President maintained, adding that “rice farmers across the country have a new lease of life, due to the transformation taking place in the sector.” Describing the form of transformation that has taken place in agriculture under his watch, the President announced that “our country is producing more food than ever before. Our national food production has expanded by 21 million metric tons within the past three years. Our food import bill declined from N1.1 trillion in 2009 to N634 billion in 2013 and continues to decline. This is progress and we must continue to move forward!” According to the President, “high quality Nigerian rice is now competing favourably with imported rice in the markets. Our rice millers have taken advantage of these new opportunities, and the number of integrated rice mills has expanded from 1 (one) at the beginning of this administration, to 24 today. And they are all here today. I celebrate you all. I eat Nigerian rice and can tell you it is better than imported rice.” On his administration’s intervention in the transformation of other commodities, President Jonathan noted how “cotton farmers are seeing a dramatic change in their fortunes as our support provided thousands of farmers with improved cotton seeds” He pointed out that his government has “revived 22 cotton ginneries. We have launched a new programme to revive the textile and garments industry. We are turning cotton into white gold for farmers.” He emphasised that similar changes have taken place in cocoa as farmers have received nearly “45.5 million seedlings of high yielding cocoa varieties, all free of charge.” The President noted that “Nigeria’s oil palm story is changing, with the provision of 9 million sprouted nuts of high yielding oil palm seedlings for farmers, all across the south-east, south-west, south-south and north-central parts of our country. He said the “future of the agriculture sector will depend on creating opportunities for our youth. That is why I launched the Youth Employment in Agriculture Program (YEAP), to develop a new generation of 750,000 young commercial farmers and agribusiness leaders for Nigeria.” President Jonathan drew attention to efforts being made to make “agriculture more attractive,” a reason he gave for approving “the provision of N50 billion to support the establishment of 1,200 Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprises across the country” to “take the hoes and cutlasses into the museums and replace them with tractors and mechanized equipment.” Explaining the rationale for the festival, Dr. Adesina, observed that “farmers are not on the internet. They are not on Twitter. So they decided to have a face-to-face time with you Mr. President.” He argued that, “with the fall in the price of crude oil, agriculture has become the new oil for Nigeria.” On the youth involvement in agriculture, Dr. Adesina noted “the new generation of commercial farmers and agribusiness leaders, the Nagropreneurs, will further transform the agriculture sector.” He recalled that, on Thursday, in his office, cheques worth N123 million were given as grants to 27 young Nagropreneurs as part of government’s support for them.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 00:59:31 +0000
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