Bayero University starts rice production

• Installed rice mill has capacity for processing 1 tonne daily

Isola Moses

In an apparent move towards boosting local rice production, Bayero University Kano (BUK), in Kano State, Nigeria, has joined the league of rice-producing organisations in the country.

Nigerian Tribune reports the University’s latest effort is to contribute its quota to alleviating the demand for rice through the production of parboiled rice, besides meeting the demand of both the university community and the general public.

The Federal Government’s bans on rice importation and subsequent closure of land borders reportedly, have enhanced installations of several rice mills across the country.

It is an attempt to hence boosting massive production of home-grown rice, stated the source.

Ali Abdullahi, Head, Agricultural Economics and Extension, BUK, in an interview, disclosed that the university’s rice mill has a capacity of processing a tonne per day.

Abdullahi said recently, the institution of higher learning produced 500 bags of rice in three days for a local contractor.

However, he related that by January 2020, the rice would be available in the open markets, as the current production rate has surpassed the consumption level of the University community.

Meanwhile, the department has trained hundreds of youths from Kano and Kogi states on rice value chain, according to the Head of Agricultural Economics and Extension Department.

The initiative, he stated, may likely end the gap between ‘town and gown’, a hitherto discouraging development in which academic research and project were being kept in universities to the detriment of the larger society.

Bayero University’s Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension is among the first three pioneer departments in the Faculty of Agriculture, established in August 2001.

The department teaches courses and carries out research work in agricultural economics and extension, especially as it relates to sustainable and profitable agriculture in the Sudano-Sahelian ecological region, the report stated.