Sokoto: The good side of border closure

THE recent closing of land borders by the Federal Government to primarily prevent the illegal movement of goods into the country is a matter of different strokes for different folks. In Sokoto State, there are border points cutting across four or five local government areas sharing boundaries with Niger Republic.

The ban on imported rice, though hurtful to some people who had invested extensively into it, is now a blessing and a great opportunity for local rice producers and processors in the state, especially young unemployed people who now have their hands full in rice farming.

Today, almost every household in Kalambina, a settlement in Wamakko Local Government Area, is into rice processing.

A resident of Kalambina, Bello Ismail Kalambina, who spoke with Arewa Live, commended the Federal Government’s decision on the closure of borders, saying that it had been a blessing to the community.

According to Bello: “The closure of the border has helped us to boost our rice production. Before the border closure, we had only about 2,000 people doing this job (rice cultivation) in Kalambina, but I can confidently tell you now that we have up to 5,000 people now.Those that were not in the business before are now fully involved, the closure of the border has boosted our business as more people are now patronising local rice.

“We are appealing to government at all levels to assist us with some tools. Most of the things we need in processing rice are not available. We need constant electricity supply, modern chemicals and water and most of the machines we use here are obsolete.

“Look at the paddy rice; before now, we used to buy it at N8,500 per bag but it has jumped to N10,500 due to its scarcity and lack of competition from imported rice. We want the government to empower more farmers and let the wealthy individuals invest in rice farming so that it will not be limited to raining season. If this is done, I can assure you that the price of local rice will reduce and the common man will be able to afford it.”

Also speaking to Arewa Live, Buhari Mustapha, another local rice producer in Kalambina, commended the government on border closure. He disclosed that more people are now into rice production, though most of them still lack modern tools to help them increase their production.

“Here in Kalambina, we don’t have any other job now except rice cultivation as both boys and girls, old or young are now fully engaging in it.

Many people don’t know that it is an occupation which our forefathers bequeathed to us. I inherited the job from my parents and I am proud to tell you that all my four children are into it as well.

“I urge youths across the country to look into what they can also engage themselves in and I believe they will have good stories to tell as well if they can work very hard,” Mustapha said.

Speaking on some of the challenges facing the business, he said: “Here in Kalambina, we really don’t engage in rice farming. We basically process rice. All the rice you see here are either from Zamfara, Katsina and Kebbi states as well as some local government in Sokoto State.

This is why it is difficult to maintain a constant price. When the border was initially closed, a bag of rice here was around N30,000.

“That has changed now as you can easily get same quality and quantity at the rate of N25,000 or N26,000, while those of low quality are between N18,000 and N19,000. Government should continue to help farmers. They should remember that it is farmers who feed the nation.

Let the government empower them with adequate facilities. I can tell you that with positive investment in farming, not only rice but other foodstuffs will be available for all at reasonable price,” he disclosed.

The Secretary of the Rice Processing Association in the community, Sanusi Aliyu, while speaking with Arewa Live in his office in Sokoto, declared that government could alleviate the problems of farmers by providing a rice mill in the community. He described Kalambina as the backbone of local rice processing not only in Sokoto, but also in the entire North-Western states.

“Let me use this opportunity to call on government at all levels to help us with adequate facilities in order to boost our local productions and make it look standard like the foreign rice. We call for the establishment of rice processing company in this environment; this will provide jobs for the youths. We have no fewer than 3,000 registered members of this association in Kalambina Rice Processing Association and most have not been captured.

“Even with this manual and old way of doing production, I can confidently tell you that we are processing not less than 1,000 bags of 50 kilogrammes rice on daily basis.You can imagine if we get assistance from the government and wealthy individuals, with modern processing machineries, we can conveniently produce between 4,000 and 5,000 bags of 50kg daily,” he stated.

Aliyu also commended the Federal Government for the closure, saying it was a great development which had contributed to making rice production more lucrative than before.

According to him, “before the closure of land borders, we only have about 60 (small rice processing) machines in Kalambina here but at present now, we have about 130 machines being used for this job by members. While we used to take our products to market and wait for weeks before selling them, now most of our goods are taken off immediately we get to the market as demand is now more than supply.

“We have people, especially from the Eastern part of the country who buy up to 700 bags at a time meant to be taken to their destination. This is why you can hardly find a house in Kalambina community where nobody is into rice production. We have two types of local rice. One is called Jemila rice. This Jemila rice is just like foreign rice after processing. You can hardly differentiate between Jemila rice and some of the foreign rice products.

“The other one is what we call CP rice, this is the type of rice that can be easily identified as local rice by mere looking at it.”