The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, has disclosed that the Federal Government about $150 billion (N23.4 trillion) could be spent by 2050 to meet the demand of a population that has an increasing demand for imported rice.
He made the disclosure at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) workshop on Financing Nigeria’s Agricultural Revolution. He also asserted that “Nigeria is now the largest importer of rice in the world. As our population rises, demand for rice is projected to rise from the current level of five million MT to 36 million MT by 2050. Unless Nigeria begins an aggressive import substitution programme for rice, it will spend $150 billion annually importing rice by 2050 and the nation will be broke.”
