Cross River Takes A Leap As Ayade Digitalizes Rice Farming

By Chidi Onyemaizu

“If you give me rice, I will eat today;  if you teach me how to grow rice, I will eat every day”- Mahatma Gandhi.

This timeline quote, uttered almost a century ago by the irrepressible Indian anti-colonial nationalist is resonating in Cross River state. It has found meaning in the state where its visionary governor and a Professor of Environmental Micro Biology, Ben Ayade is silently superintending a massive revolution in rice farming.

In Cross River, Governor Ayade is indeed showing class and vision with a new vista on technology-driven rice cultivation and production.

He has done away with the slavish and laborious mode of rice farming and introduced the latest technology in the cultivation and production of the crop, thus making the farming processing pleasurable.

According to him, “today, rice cultivation in Nigeria gives you an average of three to four tonnes per hectare while in advanced worlds like Thailand and China, you are looking at between 10 and 14 tonnes per hectare. That is technology, that is the digitalisation that my administration has brought in”

With quantum investments in rice cultivation and production, Ayade is keen on creating employment as well as diversifying Cross River’s economy through revenue accruing from local and international sales of rice and rice seedlings.

The Governor’s giant strides in that direction have not gone unnoticed. A broad spectrum of Nigerians agrees that his innovative efforts on rice production are top-notch.

Since a focused head will always attract a fitting and deserving cap, it was no surprise, therefore, that President Muhammad Buhari, at a recent unveiling of rice pyramid in Abuja by the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, RIFAN, singled out Professor Ayade for honour.

An Excellent Award bestowed on him by the President in recognition of his invaluable contributions to rice production and rice value chain is an enchanting validation of Ayade’s grit-determination to put Cross River nay Nigeria on the global rice production map.

Notedly, in pursuit of his administration’s revolution in rice production, Professor Ayade has established in Calabar, the state capital, Africa’s first and only automated rice seeds and seedling factory.

The factory was commissioned in June 2018 by President Buhari amid effusive praises for the governor.

There is also an ultra-modern vitaminized rice mill, also the first of its kind in Africa,  in Ogoja, in the northern part of the state, completed and awaiting commissioning by the President.

The Ogoja rice mill is eye-popping and jaw-dropping. With design and installed machinery in the facility sharing similarities and competing favourably with those in the industrialised world, the magnificent Ogoja rice mill leaves first-time visitors mouths agape.

Ayade’s predecessor, former Governor Liyel Imoke, satisfied with what he saw after a visit to the plant had this to say: “the rice mill is huge, it is a project that makes economic sense, it is a project that creates employment. I love the location, it is ideally located. It will capture rice from the northern, central and Southern Cross River in terms of access to the market.

“I have always talked about timing. The Ogoja rice Mill came at the right time. It came at a time the federal government has committed billions of naira to local rice production.

“This mill fits into the governor’s vision for industrialized Cross River. So, in the area of Industrialization, I give it to him.”

The rice seeds and seedlings factory in Calabar is projected to yield N14 billion naira annually to the coffers of the state government.

The factory produces high-yielding, disease resistant rice seedlings.

So many southern states have in the past year or thereabouts, got supplies of rice seedlings running into billions of naira from the factory.

Private rice farmers including Chairman of the IRS Group, Rabiu Isiaku Rabiu had also ordered seedlings from the factory.

For President Buhari, the rice factory, situated at the sprawling industrial park, is a “reference point in Nigeria’s effort to kick-start a revolution in agriculture.

“This factory speaks loudly about the giant strides we are making in agriculture as a country. It is evident that by conceiving projects such as this, governor Ayade has a keen eye for tomorrow, focusing on projects that are building a new economic base for the state, rather than projects with short-term benefits to make cheap political gains,” the President further said.

Former Governor Donald Duke believes that Ayade deserves a Noble Prize for his pioneering effort at digitalizing rice farming.

He spoke glowingly of the governor when he visited the factory: “This rice facility, from what I have seen here, can enable the entire West Africa sub-region to be self-sufficient in rice.

“If that was all Ayade did, he has every right to beat his chest. If all he did was to ensure that the entire sub-region of West Africa is self-sustaining in rice production, he will deserve a Nobel Prize for that.

“The rice seedlings facility will make Cross River by far the largest producer of rice in the entire West Africa.”

Essentially, whenever a story of how Nigeria got on the subway to self-sufficiency in rice production is written by international researchers like Simona Varrella with a bias for the study of economic growth,  a chapter or two should be devoted to Ayade’s contributions because in the words of the governor, “Cross River has provided an alternative roadmap to crude oil as the mainstay of the economy by focusing on Agro-industrialization.”

Onyemaizu is the Senior Special Assistant on Print Media to Governor Ayade