By Gabriel Ewepu – Abuja

The Nigeria Farmers Group and Cooperative Society, NFGCS, Saturday, disclosed that the visit by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, to the cooperative’ Farm City at Ga’ate in Kokona Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, has brought about pressure from customers who have place tremendous demand on them, because of endorsement of the farm.

This was made known by the National Coordinator, NFGCS, Mr Retson Tedheke, who said demand has increased by 500 per cent in the last five weeks for local rice supply from the farm.

According to Retson made the demand pressure for the local rice is basically from investors, banks and grain distributors,  which has been overwhelming.

READ ALSO: Customs seize smuggled rice, others worth over N43m in north

He further stated that as of today (Saturday), demand for local rice is increasing, which he assured that the demand gap would soon be closed in coming weeks.

He said: “Although the pressure is on us right as we speak, we close to another circle of massive rice harvest to close the gap.

“As you can see, new milling machines with the capity to increase our production by another 60 per cent have almost been installed to begin operation by next week to meet demands for the festive season.

“Since the visit of the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, you can see that I no longer leave the farm till 7 or 8pm everyday and all of you have also noticed that I resume here before 7am daily because of the pressure on us to produce more and not to fail those who have entrusted us with this responsibility.”

The NFGCS boss also charged his staff to step up as there is now a challenge in meeting increased demand for the comodity, hence their work shift would be adjusted to double.

READ ALSO: Nigeria customs impounds 1,343 bags of foreign rice, others worth N492m, makes 6 arrest

“We have reached the point of no going back and we will continue to do this till we put this place on the map of the world, just as we have already started.

Meanwhile, he said the target of the farm for 2020 will be N100 billion, and urged staff to assiduously work to meet the target.

“This farm in 2020 will raise N100 billion and that will also depends on how committed we are in our various departments.

“We are already the biggest community farm project in Nigeria as it’s already widely reported by local and international media.

“The farm is the source of our strength and it is the reason the Vice President deemed it necessary to visit us”, he added.

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