Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has blamed the policies of the Shehu Shagari administration for the reason Nigeria is not self-sufficient in rice production.
The ex-president said this at the unveiling of Okun Rice at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, on Thursday in Abeokuta, Ogun state.
According to him, the Shagari administration had set up a presidential committee on rice importation instead of a committee on exportation.
He explained that local rice farmers gave up, after the rice began entering the country.
“One of our problems in this country is inconsistency in policy. In 1979, we were getting to a place where we would be self-sufficient in rice production, but then a new administration came and set up a presidential committee on rice importation instead of a presidential committee on exportation of rice,” Obasanjo said.
“In no time, when the imported rice started a arriving, those farmers who were cultivating rice gave up. Today, I commend Hyst Global Business Limited and the Chairman, Mr. Biodun Onalaja, for his doggedness, persistence, and stubbornness. It is not easy to succeed here as a farmer.
“But I want to say Onalaja is a success story, because despite the odds he never gave up.”
Obasanjo appealed to commercial banks to offer soft loans to farmers at a single digit interest rate as it would make it easier to break even.
