Well According to Nigerian minister of state for agriculture and rural development, the price for an average bag of rice will hit an all time high of N40,000.
This is even as it called on every States in the country to commence rice farming.
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, gave the warning at the weekend in a townhall meeting in Bayelsa State.
According to him, the country spends about $22billion annually on rice importation adding that the increased rate of dollar has led to the hike in price of the commodity.
He said, “For your information, we spend about $22bn a year importing food into Nigeria. We know how many more dollars they bought and that is why you see the price of rice going up.
“Price of rice was N12,000 some months ago, but it is now about N26,000 and if we don’t start producing, by December it could be N40,000.
“Rice matures in three months. So, this is a wake up call for Bayelsa people to take the four farms we have seriously. The federal government has four farms in the state in our records.
“The average land you see in Bayelsa can grow rice, so the colonial masters were not wrong in their assessment when they said Niger Delta could feed not only Nigerian but also the entire West Africa sub-region.
“Unfortunately, agriculture till today, is not a priority of the Niger Delta as far as the state governments are concerned because of oil.”
He lamented that states in the Niger Delta had yet to give priority to agriculture the way the North-West states such as Kebbi, Jigawa, Kano as well as other states like Lagos, Ebonyi, Anambra had done.
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