Lagos mill will crash rice price - Govt

The Lagos State Acting Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya, on Thursday, August 20, 2020 said there would be steady supply of paddy from local farmers for the 32 metric tonnes per hour Imota Rice Mill.

She spoke on the sidelines of an inspection tour of the rice mill by members of the state House of Assembly Committee on Agriculture, led by its Chairman, Kehinde Joseph.

Olusanya, who assured that the mill would be completed in December 2020, explained that rice farmers in the state were getting the needed support of the state government to ensure that they had a hitch-free planting season.

“On Tuesday, we kicked off the rice farmers’ sensitisation, training and empowerment programme for over 800 rice farmers in Lagos State.

“The reason is even if we are going to source for paddy from other localities, we should start from our own Lagos farmers, our Eko rice farmers,” she added.

The acting commissioner noted that no fewer than 250,000 job opportunities would be created along the value chains.

Joseph charged contractors handling the mill to hasten work on the project.

He said the committee was overseeing the project to ensure that percentage of work done so far was commensurate with the money released by the state government.

The lawmaker said the mill would collapse the prices of local rice.