Anchor borrower: Kalef rice miller targets 11,000 metric tonnes

In spite of the lull in farming activities last year due to the insurgency, a private framer Kalef rice miller engaged by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, as one of its clients in the anchor/borrower sector is targeting 11,000 metric tonnes of rice harvest this year.

Chief farmer of the company Alhaji Abba Kale said that he went into the cultivation of 3,176 hectares of land for rice in Borno state last farming season and has commenced the milling and processing of the crop.

He told newsmen in Maiduguri that the initial target of the company was to produce 11,000 metric tonnes which are why the anchor-borrower rice production scheme introduced by CBN in 2016 started with 3,176 hectares of land in Borno State.

Kale explained that nearly 75 percent of the nurseries were already sown to be transplanted on 3,176 hectares of farmland before CBN gave directives to reduce the hectarage to 1,958, giving each farmer only a hectare.

He further pointed out that the entire project was being executed in accordance with the guidelines given by the CBN anchor borrower department which is why they had to stick to specifications.

The program, the Chief farmer and chairman of the Kalef group revealed, commenced in March 2017 with the establishment of nurseries in selected northern parts of the state, in Konduga, Zabarmari, Dusuman as well as in some local government areas of southern Borno including Biu and Kwaya Kusar.

Kale, however, regretted that the production of the rice will be very low, following last rains flood disaster which destroyed crops in Konduga town where over 80 percent of the cultivated farmland for the program is located.

Nearly 75 percent of the grains seedlings were transplanted in the permanent farmlands when unexpectedly river Yare flooded their farms in Konduga where over 80 percent of the anchor farmers are located.