Dangote Rice, a subsidiary of Dangote Group, is set to launch in Sokoto, Sokoto State, its multi-million naira 25,000 hectares of rice outgrower scheme with a prospect of hundreds of thousands of employment opportunities for inhabitants of the rural communities.

President of the Group, Aliko Dangote, disclosed at the weekend that the company will on Wednesday flag off with a pilot project of 500 ha by Gonroyo dam, in Goronyo community. Gonroyo dam is the second largest in the country, after Kainji.

The flag-off ceremony, to be performed by the governor of the state, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, will witness seedlings being distributed to the primary local farmers who will in turn plant the seed after which Dangote Rice company will purchase from them for milling and final processing.

Sokoto is the second after Jigawa out of the 14 states where Dangote Rice plans to operate the outgrower scheme to empower local farmers, create job opportunities for community dwellers and reduce migration to the cities.

Dangote Rice projects in the 14 states, when operational, will generate a significant number of jobs and increase the take-home income for smallholder farmers, all while diversifying Nigeria’s economy and reducing the nation’s food import bill.

Statistics from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) estimates that rice demand in Nigeria reached 6.3 million MT in 2015, with only 2.3 million MT of that demand satisfied by local production.

This local production shortfall leaves a gap of 4.0 million MT that is currently being filled through formal importation of rice or illegal imports over land borders.

Dangote Group said in a statement issued on Sunday in Lagos: “By year-end 2017, Dangote Rice plans to produce 225,000 MT of parboiled, milled white rice. This will allow us to satisfy 4% of the total market demand within 1 year. Our model can then be successfully scaled to produce 1,000,000 MT of milled rice in order to satisfy 16% of the domestic market demand for rice over the next 5 years.

“Due to the current economic crisis, domestic prices for agro-commodities have risen dramatically over the last 12 months, making local agriculture an attractive investment.

Dangote Rice Limited seeks to take advantage of this economic trend and the favourable policies laid out in the FMARD’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda.”

The statement disclosed that “Dangote Rice will establish raw material reception, drying, hulling, parboiling units and silos in strategic areas throughout the country near our additional outgrower communities.” It said that “each site will store dried, hulled, parboiled bran rice. DRL will then transport this bran rice to a mill, where finished rice will be produced.”

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