Mohammed Abubakar, the minister of agriculture and rural development, has vowed to ensure that his ministry maintains a good relation with security agencies to reduce the illegal importation of rice through land borders.
He said this at a meeting of the steering committee of the national task force on illegal importation.
This is according to a statement from the ministry’s senior information officer, signed by Mabel Mbosire.
Abubakar stated that the improvement of the rice sub-sector must be sustained for the country’s economic growth.
“The resumed smuggling of foreign rice, especially through the land borders, is constituting a serious threat to these achievements,” Abubakar said.
”Therefore, if the smuggling is left unchecked it will jeopardise all government efforts to enhance the domestic rice industry and make them ineffective.
“The federal government and the private sector have invested a lot of resources in rice production and processing over the years, because of the government’s commitment to the development of the sub-sector through its various interventions.
“There is no better time than now to maintain the rice production momentum to achieve self-sufficiency for food and nutrition security, job creation, wealth generation, and import substitution.
“The Nigeria Customs Service cannot fight alone in the operation of the border patrol, but needs other security agencies, such as the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps, to beef up the joint operations of the task force,” he said.
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