Rice millers raise alarm over scarcity of paddy, warn of further hike in price

Chairman of Northern Cham­ber of Commerce and Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Alhaji Dalhatu Abubakar, on Monday, raised alarm over the scarcity of harvested rice, known as paddy, saying its shortage is currently forcing millers to shut down production.

The price of finished rice has jumped up by more than 30 percent in the last one month following the scarcity of paddy rice. This may be due to last year’s flood which affected the harvest.

Dalhatu Abubakar, who is also the Chairman of Al-Ham­sad Integrated Rice Mill, told reporters in his office that the implication of paddy scarcity would force an increase in the price of finished rice.

The industrialist expressed fear that food insecurity may hit its worst level in Nigeria if the present scarcity of paddy, a major raw material for the pro­ductionof finishedrice, persists.

Abubakar stressed that several millers had cut down production from 24 to 12 hours while laying off factory work­ers who are, by no means, ren­dered redundant.

He therefore called on the Federal Government’s intervention on the area of mechanisation and assisting the farmers with needed in­put that would enable all year round production.

According to him, “Today hundreds of millers both the integrated and small scale are in serious dilemma and finding it extremely difficult to break even. It is difficult to sustain production now be­cause of scarcity of paddy. As I speak, I know many millers that have completely closed their factories.”

He disclosed that “those that are yet to close because they still have limited paddy in their reserve cannot oper­ate 24 hours. Like me, I have reduced my production to 12 houses because I don’t have paddy. By implication, sever­al workers will be rendered jobless.”

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