Import bill for food in Nigeria is becoming alarming. At 11 percent per annum, it is growing in geometric acceleration that seems very difficult to sustain. Most unfortunate is that Nigeria is importing what it can produce in abundance, thereby hurting Nigerian farmers and displacing local production.
Ironically, the present President of the African Development Bank, ADB and former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina had in 2012, at a two-day Investors' Forum in Abeokuta, Ogun State, promised that this would sieze to be the situation in 2015.
The minister then, said the Federal Government had commenced measures to address the problem and by 2015, would stop the importation of rice.
He painted a picture which suggested that the abundant Taraba rice project which gulped over $40m and two other rice mills, established in Niger and Ebonyi, would be capable of providing enough rice for Nigeria to stop the importation which was nearing fever pitch at about five million metric tonnes per annum.
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