The Enugu State Government has expressed willingness to assist farmers in the state to subsidise farm inputs to boost food production and security.
Mr Boniface Eze, the Programme Manager, Enugu State Agricultural Development Programme (ENADEP), said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Enugu.
Eze said that the government had acquired 1,000 hectares of land for dry season rice production to make Enugu retain its status as the highest rice producing state in the region.
He noted that 50 rice destoning machines were distributed to rice farmer last year to enable them produce more quality rice.
“Government efforts has become imperative because the state is the bedrock of rice production in the South East region,” he said.
Ezeh disclosed that the state had the highest number of rice farmers in the region as eight out of the 17 local government areas in the state produce rice in commercial quantity.
He said that the inputs would expose rice farmers to new technique of producing, processing, packaging and marketing rice to attract more buyers.
“If we say we are producing rice, we should equally eat good rice because what took us to foreign rice is the cleanliness. You can cook foreign rice without removing the stones.
“Parboiling is one of the things that lead to having less stones in rice. When you parboil with good technique, the chances of having stone will not be there,” he said.
He reiterated government’s determination to sustain and improve rice production in the state for local consumption and exports.
Eze said that as part of efforts to boost rice production in the country, government would train extension agents, who would in turn train the parboilers.
“This training is a very good one and it has come to the right people because Enugu state is a home of rice production,” he said.
He noted that parboilers, who had been trained in other states, had adopted the technology and testified to increase in yields and income.
Eze expressed confidence that rice farmers in Enugu state would not be left out.