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Rice Millers

The National Chairman of the Rice Millers Association of Nigeria, Peter Dama, has said that most farmers and millers are unable to participate in the Federal Government’s agricultural mechanisation drive due to a lack of funds and the high cost of equipment.

Dama said despite the government’s ongoing efforts to improve mechanisation, the economic situation had made it difficult for operators to get involved.

“The process is on, but people are not really going in there for it because the amount, the money, where is the money? People don’t have the money to really go buy all those things because things are very expensive,” he said.

He urged the government to prioritise affordable alternatives such as solar-powered irrigation pumps and small-scale tilling equipment rather than large machinery that most farmers cannot afford.

“You can do mechanisation by supplying, you know, solar pumps for irrigation. You can also get small tiller tractors or tillers that you can use for farming. They use very little fuel to till your ground, to till your farm,” he said.

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On the broader state of the industry, Dama said large and medium-scale rice millers were struggling badly while smaller operators were faring better owing to lower production costs.

“The industry is not doing very well. In particular, when it comes to the very big, medium, and big millers. The smaller millers, yes, they are because their production cost is not as high. And you know what the situation is about electricity and energy in this country. Petrol is expensive, diesel is expensive,” he said.

He also raised concerns about the minimum wage, questioning how businesses with dozens of staff could sustain the N70,000 threshold amid rising costs.

On access to tractors, Dama said cooperative arrangements were not practical for members spread across different states. “But in a situation like our association, somebody is in Niger, somebody is in Enugu, somebody is in Calabar, somebody is in Kaduna. How can you come as a cooperative association to say you pull your money together?” he asked.

President Bola Tinubu launched the Renewed Hope National Agricultural Mechanisation Programme in June 2025, unveiling 2,000 tractors, 10 combine harvesters, 12 mobile workshops and over 9,000 agricultural implements procured under a partnership with Belarus.

The programme, designed to serve more than 550,000 farming households and cultivate over 500,000 hectares annually, was handed to the Bank of Agriculture for implementation. Distribution formally commenced in February 2026 after a deliberate delay to establish a transparent allocation and repayment framework.

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Rice Millers
Hibbatullah Shittu
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