The Enugu state government  has restated it plans to begin the production of rice twice a year by the middle of next year following  the ongoing rehabilitation  of Ada Rice in  Adani community of  Uzo-uwani local government Council of Enugu State

The Commissioner for Agriculture, Hon Matthew  Idu disclosed this last week in an interview ugamatv stating that Ada rice  will Bring  back normalcy in the state and help  provide an enabling environment  for rice farmers  to be able to have water to  produce rice twice  yearly.

Stating that the research  institute  are also at  work to make sure that farmers have shorter span of rice production  by cross breeding , for instance he  explained,  

“In the past 15 years Eri5,  1416,  Bg90 rice was what we eat, but today we eat faro44, faro 46 this is the function  of the government ,faro 46, 1416 rice is a very sweet rice but short rice but Bg90 is longer rice but has longer span of production,  what we do is cross breed them to have a shorter life span of production and we came out with faro44  rice which has a shorter time of production”.

According  to the Commissioner, “Enugu  state is an agrarian state, they are  predominantly farmers, our farms are very good in the area of rice  production

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“I believe  with the ongoing  project at Ada Rice farm area, by the middle of next year, farmers will be able to produce  twice a year” he stated.
Stating  that Uzo-uwani is reputed for rice cultivation and production. ” Its prowess in this area is due to the existence of vast agricultural area good enough for rice farming.

He Stressed that  “Ada Rice farm  has the potential of close to four thousand hectares of land, including 1000  hectares  of land which was used for offices  but out of the  4000 hectares for farming,  1200 hectares was developed

“But the rice farm later went into dilapidation , after 2008 and 2011, and alot of things went wrong, the irrigation  was not functioning.

“But presently,  the resuscitation and Rehabilitation of Ada rice is under Agricultural Transformation  Agenda of the federal  Republic  of Nigeria that  has made it possible  to bounce back

“Work is seriously  ongoing there, the carnals is been lined with concrete unlike before is was lined with soil. The main carnal, the secondary  the tertiary  canal and the the drainages, all will be lined with concrete.

“So the lining of the carnal,  building  of farm road, 65 kilometres  road within the farm and the bridges,  work is ongoing  now.

He noted that 3.1 billion  naira project in ongoing in Ada Rice presently, made possible by the Governor, of Enugu state Rt Hon Ifeany Ugwuanyi

Stating that “If he dose that, and the contract  are awarded, by ongiong and farmers produce  twice a year, that will be record breaking because there is no other southeast  state that produces rice twice in a year

“We are at the forefront,  no other state dose better than us in rice production,  We have already overtaken,

“We have fadama in this state, initially we thought  it was only  uzo uwani that has rice but we discovered 7 more local government  with fadama rice, which includes, Ezeagu, Isu- Uzo, Ogbuoka, Nkanu east , Anniri ,Oduma, Awgu,  Orji-River nmam river. we have the potential  we are over shooting

“The  Governor   has also purchased 35 destonining machines, and gave it to right processors so they can use it to process  package and sell rice on there own”

He recalled that It was the coal city rice that was shared to people  during pandemic  last year.
“We meet with the farmers, and they Milled  rice ,package  and gave  to our  people” he stated.