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Farmers urge Nigerian Govt to ensure predictable market by controlling rice prices
By Matthew Eloyi
Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) has called on the Federal Government to ensure a predictable market by controlling prices in the rice value chain.
The Oyo State Chairman of RIFAN, Mr. Samuel Akinade, made the call in an interview with newsmen in Ibadan, on Monday.
Akinade noted that the cost of rice if regulated by the government, will ensure the predictability of the market and check the unjustified increase in the price of what consumers buy due to the activities of middlemen.
In his words, “If we plant rice because rain is good and we harvest it, and we sell it to the millers at a moderate price, the millers will add their cost to it.
“But as soon as it leaves the milling centers, what will happen between then and when it gets to the table of the consumers is unknown.
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“There are middlemen who will sell the commodity and they can decide to sell for anything.
“Also, the force of demand and supply will take its course, especially when people now begin to shift to local rice because of its nutritional value.”
According to him, the price will be going up because more people are going for it and that is why our market in Nigeria is unpredictable, everybody does whatever they like with the market.
“If there is control from the government, it can regulate the price at different stages of production and stipulate price for the marketers, which will be okay.
“If the government says the paddy rice is at this cost to the millers, the millers should release it at this price and then the marketer should sell at the market at this price that will be okay.
“But in a case where the farmers release rice at a moderate price, the millers who produced added something, what of the marketers? Who is controlling the marketers? Nobody!
“That is why we can’t predict the price of rice. Besides, when people say the paddy is costly, it is because the chemicals we use are very expensive now, even the high cost of tractors is part of why rice is expensive,” he said.
