OLAM Farms located in Nasarawa State has been upgraded to a Staple Crop Processing Zone (SCPZ) bringing the number of such zones in the country to 15. The SCPZs currently being established across the country, are expected  to process the raw produce produced by farmers into finished foods and other economic products.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina,  disclosed this during the week during an assessment visit to the farms located in Rukubi Village of Doma Local government area of the state. Adesina  said the government will partner with other development partners to provide basic infrastructure to those communities with a view to attracting more investment.

“Today, is one of my happiest days as a Minister of Agriculture because of what I have seen here; the farm has the capacity to create more jobs.This single farm has employed 950 workers already and also has the capacity to produce 72,000 tonnes of paddy rice, which tells you that Nigeria can emerge the Thailand in Africa.

He added “I have, therefore, declared that this farm becomes one of our staple crops processing zones and we will partner with other development partners to build infrastructure to attract bigger investment. “The infrastructure development will benefit the community and people around the farm and other potential investors too.”

The minister said that the Federal Government’s revolutionary step towards attaining self-sufficiency in rice by 2015 was  attainable.

“Today offers greater hope towards our journey to attaining rice sufficiency, the areas cultivated at a time is 3,000 hectares twice a year, including both wet and dry seasons.”

He noted that the farm cultivated two varieties of rice, the faro 44 and 52 varieties, hybrid and in-breed variety that thrive better in swampy environment.

According to him, this particular farm produces 72,000 tonnes of Paddy rice; you can also see the combined harvesters already harvesting. The agricultural transformation has boosted the Gross Domestic Product with N340 billion, as evident in the recent GDP rebasing, where the agriculture sector recorded appreciable impact. In 2012, we produced 1.4 million tonnes of rice and it was 2.94 million tonnes of additional paddy last year; it translates to 1.9 million tonnes of rice when milled.

“This has pruned down our 2.3 million tonnes record of presently imported rice, which draws us closer to self-sufficiency. Today, it is not just the large mills that are doing this job; the small mills around the country are contributing to the sufficiency.

“We can conveniently boast of about 4,200 small mills in Abakaliki and several other places across the country as at today.”

In the same vein, Mr Mukul Mathur, the Managing Director of Olam Farms, said the company had invested 72 million dollars into the farm.

He said that the company’s resolve to embark on the investment was to support the Federal Government’s efforts in its rice sufficiency move.

Mathur said the farm was already producing 72,000 metric tonnes of rice at the moment.

He said the company was established in Nigeria 24 years ago, noting that, “our 25th year will add a great value to the Agriculture Transformation Agenda of the government.

“Our goal is not different with your national goals; therefore, we are happy to have an enabling environment here and we promise to invest more.”