|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By Oboh Linus, Lafia
The Nasarawa State Government said it has partnered with Silvex International to market the state own harvested 3,300 hectares Jangwa rice farm.
Gov Abdullahi Sule disclosed this on Monday in Jangwa in Obi Local Government Area of the State during the flag- off of the Jangwa / Agwatashi state own rice farm harvest.
The governor noted that Silvex International has graciously agreed to bag the milled rice and brand it as NASACCO Rice, the name which originated from the Nasarawa Agro Commodity Company.
Sule explained that Nasarawa State’s venturing into rice farming was beyond politics but rather to get involved in physical agriculture.
“Silvex is a company that has rice mills, one in Kogi, one in Abuja but they don’t have a farm, so they buy from the open market. Instead of buying from the open market we now ask them to come and buy from us.
“So for us, this is not just promoting agriculture, this is involved in physical agriculture, you know supporting agriculture is something we have been doing either we give tractors, herbicides, or fertilisers to our farmers.
“But we said we must go beyond that, that is a little more political. We wanted to go beyond political agriculture so that’s the reason why we are doing what we are doing,” he said.
Gov Sule said he was impressed with the harvest, noting that the yield from every hectare was encouraging.
“Last year was only 2,000 hectares of land, this year we did additional clearing of 1,300 making it 3,300 hectares, by the grace of God next season we will expand by another 2,000 so that at least we will be talking about 5,000 plus hectares,”, he said.
Also speaking, Mr Abubakar-Garba-Garba – Garba Ibrahim, Operational Manager of Silvex International applauded Gov Sule’s commitment to the transformation of the agricultural value chain.
He described the quality of Jangwa Rice as top-notch, adding that the variety the state has grown was among the best.
“Silvex is an integrated agribusiness company and presently we have over 460 metric tons, which means more than 15 trucks of processing capacity in a day from the two factories we are operating, which are just a distance from Nassarawa State.
“But it has been a challenge for us to source quality paddy at prices that are competitive for us to be able to produce for the Nigerian market. And luckily for us, we can find a partner in Nassarawa State, which is what we are celebrating today.
“So, it means beyond the taxes we are going to be paying, and beyond the value we are also going to add, Nassarawa State is going to be sharing the end profits we are earning from this venture, ” he said.
Mr Mohammed Iyimoga, Special Adviser to Gov Sule on agriculture who is also the Jangwa rice farm Manager, while thanking the governor for the support towards the success of the farm, said about 570 youths were directly engaged to work in the farm.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.