Katsina State Government in partnership with Dangote Industries Limited and Saemaul Undong Foundation – a South Korean organisation – has commenced training of over 32,000 rice farmers.

The rice farmers, drawn from Katsina and Jigawa States, will be trained on modern rice farming methods to achieve improved production and curb rice importation.

The training which will span five days would begin with 70 rice farmers in the first phase, then they would each train 100 other farmers in their localities.

Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Bello Masari, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Agriculture, Abba Abdullahi, declared the event open at the Katsina Rice Research and Development Centre, Makera, Dutsinma Local Government Area.

According to Masari, Nigeria was consuming N1 billion worth of rice daily, with most of the commodities imported.

He noted that the figure had been greatly slashed through the government’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) with the country now producing about 70 percent of the rice it consumes.

Masari noted that with the country’s plan to become self-sufficient in rice production and end its importation, the need for training of rice farmers in the state had become a necessity.

The governor revealed that the training was in line with the state government’s policy of supporting local farmers to improve their farm productivity while assisting organisers in achieving desired objectives.

Country Director, Saemaul Undong Foundation, Kyungbok Lee, stated that the decision to help selected rice farmers in Nigeria to improve production was because of what his country had experienced after the Korean War.

Lee disclosed that his country became one of the poorest countries in the world after the war, and a decision was taken to improve the agricultural sector of the economy, especially rice production.

“It is the process by which we were able to achieve this that we want to show selected farmers in Katsina and Jigawa States so that they can also train others in their communities for improved rice production,” Lee said.

VON