LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria failed to meet its target of 5 million tonnes of local rice production in 2006 because of lack of consistency in government policies, the main growers group said on Wednesday.
Abubakar Wodi, president of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) said in an interview with the state news agency that Africa's most populous country fell 800,000 tonnes short of the target.
Nigeria launched an ambitious programme in 2003 known as the "Presidential Initiative on Rice", to raise local output to 5 million tonnes last year and 6 million tonnes by end-2007.
"But as (of) now, what we have is 4.2 million tonnes. The shortfall was as a result of the insensitive nature of government to the rice farmers," Wodi said, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
"There was no sustainable backup to the Presidential Initiative on Rice, so we did not feel the impact," Wodi said.
He added that out of 182.2 billion naira earmarked for the programme, only 5 billion naira was released as take-off grant.
A top official said in January that Nigeria had cut its annual rice imports to half a million tonnes due to a significant rise in local production over the last three years due to the success of the government initiative.
Before the drop, Nigeria was the world's biggest importer of parboiled rice, mainly from Thailand and India.
The association of Rice Millers, Importers and Distributors of Nigeria said in an open letter to former President Olusegun Obasanjo in November that the decline in rice imports was not due to rising local production but to an increase in smuggling.
The association had said about a third of the rice imported into Nigeria was smuggled from neighbouring Benin, depriving the government of 24 billion naira in annual duties.
Nigeria delayed an outright ban on rice imports in 2006 and slashed duty to 50 percent from 120 percent.
Analysts say a blanket ban is not likely in the near future because rising local consumption has outmatched production, which the say is hampered by obsolete farming methods, smuggling and low private sector participation.
