| USAID, First Bank of Nigeria and OLAM Farms. Sanders said the partnership between the U.S. agency and the two organisations had greatly improved rice production in Benue, noting that the U.S. government had so far committed more than 500 million dollars to the project since 2005.``We are happy that the partnership is working. Apart from making rice available, it has engaged more than 10,000 farmers,'' she said. The envoy said that Nigeria was the highest net importer of rice in Africa and the second highest in the world.She noted with regret that the statistics was not in the interest of a country yearning for growth, adding that the trend must be reversed. She expressed the American government's readiness to partner with the private sector to boost agriculture in the country, adding that ``Nigerian farmers, and not the politicians, are the real change agents for this potentially great nation''.
|
