Henry Emeana
An industrialist and chief executive officer of Diva World Trading Services, Mrs. Ifeyinwa Nnanna-Mba says improved production and milling capacity have aided the country’s parboiled rice to gain huge acceptance at home.
Speaking when she took some journalists round the company’s new rice mill at Umuabiahu Mgbidi Community in Oru West council area of Imo State, Nnanna-Mba, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for encouraging local production of rice.
She stated that Nigeria is gradually overcoming the inefficient rice processing techniques, which resulted in processed rice that was too expensive in the country and of a lower quality than rice from other countries like China and India.
She disclosed that the rice mill was part of her efforts to facilitate rice production and improve livelihood in the state.
According to her, the rice mill, which has the capacity to mill 30 tons of processed rice per 12 hours, would be producing ‘Diva Rice’ as its brand.
The industrialist stated that the project, which would fully commence production in September, would enhance farmers’ income and foster socio-economic development of communities in the state.
She said, “We started this business in Benue State in 2019 after President Muhammadu Buhari encouraged Nigerians to embraced local rice. Since that time, we noticed that Nigerians were still complaining of poor quality of local rice. We also noticed that rice farmers and local rice millers spent a long time milling their rice as well as incurring additional costs covering of manual labour and losing up to 20 percent of harvested rice due to damage in the process.
“For instance, it takes four days to boil 100 bags of rice paddy. It also takes similar number of days to dry the same rice. But with the modern equipment we got from China, it takes only 45 minutes to boil and dry 100 bags of rice paddy.
“Also, our sorting machine gives you 100 percent stoneless long grain rice. And this looks perfectly like foreign rice”
Continuing, she added, “The thirty tons mill will ensure accessibility of rural dwellers to improve quality rice output.
“It will bring succour to the community members who hitherto travel long distances to mill and market their produce in neighbouring states with all the attendant inconveniences, improve the household income and livelihood of target beneficiaries as well as create job opportunities for the teeming youths”.
