To encourage local rice farmers, the Federal Government may in no distant time, put an end to the importation of rice.
President Goodluck Jonathan disclosed this while receiving the report of the Northern Economic Summit organized by Professor Jerry Gana, who led the G-20 Group to the president in Abuja.
Jonathan said the country has adequate arable land that could be tilled to grow enough food for Nigerians and even feed the rest of Africa.
Besides, he argued that Nigeria can no longer rely on rice import most of which have been stored in silos for over 10 years, to feed her population.
The G-20 Group made up of eminent politicians of Northern extraction had on March 17, 2011, organized the First Northern Economic Summit in Kaduna.
“If you have exotic taste for foreign rice, then be prepared to fly your private jet abroad to buy it, as I will make a major pronouncement on rice in my budget speech to the National Assembly soon,” Jonathan said.
Jonathan also dismissed foreign rice as lacking in nutrient after they have been preserved with so much chemicals for over 10 years, saying the commodity is again polished on its way to Africa.
He however assured that his resolve to revolutionize the agricultural sector remained unshakeable.
Jonathan further argued that for the poverty index of the agriculture-driven North Central Zone to be better than the highly industrialized South-West Zone, is a testimony of the huge and great potentials that abound in the agricultural sector.
The President also pledged to support a private sector driven initiative under the auspices of the G-20 Northern Group for the establishment of Northern Nigeria Development.
Pledging his administration’s sincere intention to cooperate with it in any area that could be beneficial to the aspiration of the North, Jonathan expressed optimism that if crude oil could be found in neighboring countries around the North, then there should be oil in the region, adding that the ongoing search would continue.
Jonathan noted the link between politics and economy, saying a bad economy would naturally breed violence and many other social vices, and that the first interest of his government was the economy.
Earlier in his remark, Gana told the President that “the report identified challenges and constraints such as poor energy supply; weak physical infrastructure; and weak governance systems drained by corruption, as current impediment facing the North.
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