The reason is that domestic rice prices have more than doubled in the last two years due to an import ban and a dive in the Nigerian currency. As a result, the industry has so far failed to fill a supply shortfall amounting to about 3 million tonnes of milled rice created by the import ban. TALKING VS IMPLEMENTINGUntil 2015, Nigeria imported up to 4 million tonnes of rice annually, much of which was smuggled from the western neighbour Benin Republic. They sell it then,” said Mohammed Tafida, the local head of a rice farmers’ association, who is also expanding his own fields. It works with rice farmers on 15,000 hectares and plans to expand to 165,000 hectares within 10 years.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 10, 2017 15:56 UTC