By HABU MAISHANU, Dutse
Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Muhammad Badaru Abubakar has on Thursday laid the foundation for the establishment of a 32 Metric Tone Per Hour Dangote rice Mills at Kaugama Local Government Area of the state.
In his speech, during the occasion, Governor Badaru commended Dangote Group of companies for choosing Jigawa as one of their focal states for rice production.
He noted that, in 2016, Dangote launched rice out growers scheme where over 10,000 farmers integrated in the state, and consequently the new technics and improved seeds they got resulted in high increase of yield from 2.5 tonnes to 5.5 tonnes per hectare.
The governor also commended Dangote Group of Companies for his support and contribution to the national economic growth and poverty alleviation.
In his speech, the president of Dangote Group of Companies, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, said his investment into rice production is targeted at one million metric tonnes of finished rice annually in Nigeria.
He said the Jigawa rice mills was initially proposed to mill 16 metric tons per hour but based on the out growers output support from the state government, Hadejia Emirate and host community, it is now upgraded to 32 metric tons per hour.
Dangote also revealed that, they are determine to ensure optimum improvement in rice production and to achieve this, they identified farmers as their core partners.
“To achieve optimum rice production, we will provide improved seeds, fertilizer, qualitative farm implements, agro chemical and modern techniques of farming as well as micro credit to the farmers”
“Mechanisation and irrigation schem will also be given priority to encourage our famers to produce rice in a profitable and compitative price”
He promised to complete and commission the Kaugama Rice Mills company in the next six months.
In his remarks, the Emir of Hadejia, His Highness, Dr. Adamu Abubakar Maje promised to provide maximum support to the company for the benefit of Dangote, Hadejia Emirate, Jigawa and Nigeria at large.
