Springfield Agro LTD partners RiceCo to boost rice farming in Nigeria

Springfield Agro Limited, a subsidiary of Kewalram Chanrai group has entered into a partnership with RiceCo UPL to proffer solutions to long standing challenges bedevilling rice production in Nigeria.

The partnership, was in response to the yearnings of the federal government to encourage local production of rice in the country following the ban on rice importation.

The Managing Director of the company, Mr Tarun Das said during its Agro dealers’ conference in Kano that the partnership would provide technical support to rice farmers with a view to eliminating perennial challenges they face annually in order to improve yield.

‘’Nigeria initially was a rice importing country; mostly importing rice from outside of the country. But since the new government came into power they want to improve the production of rice as a result they banned the importation of rice and started encouraging local production of the product. It was in line with this that the two companies (Springfield LTD and RiceCo) entered into partnership to provide technical support to rice farmers at the grass root.

‘’Since we started focusing on local production we have been receiving many complaints from farmers and dealers; like some areas there are no much rain so we need seeds which are faster, some areas have weeds which are difficult to control all these are challenges we hope to address’’ he said.

He said the support would be in terms of all basic requirements for rice production including seeds, chemicals, fertilisers, machineries and many other technical areas as well as training in best global practices.

To be able to access the farmers at the local communities, the company distributed 100 motorcycles to agro dealers across the country while a pickup van was donated to Tractor Owners and Hiring Facilities Association of Nigeri TOHFAN).