Rice:
The National Production of rice has increased from 1.45 million tons in 1995 to 3.6 million tons in 2010. The contribution of NCRI to this increase includes the following:
- Breeding and selection of varieties that are high yielding, pest and diseases tolerant.
- Stable, low level management of rice varieties for different ecologies.
- Training and retraining of subject matter specialists (SMS) and farmers in the areas of production and processing.
- Extension services to resource poor farmers.
Nigeria’s annual rice demand is estimated at 5 million tons, however, we still have national demand gap of 1.6 millions tons which we hope to meet in the next four years through improved seeds that are well adaptable to the different ecologies coupled with better management practices and dissemination.
The Institute has specifically developed:
- Sixty three (63) rice varieties that are low N and water use efficient, pest and diseases tolerant/resistant varieties for commercial production through breeding/introduction for the various rice ecologies (lowland, upland, deep water, mangrove swamps etc) in Nigeria have been released, with the recently released FARO 58, 59 (upland), FARO 60, 61 (lowland) and OFADA
- Appropriate technologies for the production of rice for the various ecologies have been developed.
- Appropriate rice processing technologies tested and proven have also been in circulation in the country.
- Fabricated machines for planting, threshing, winnowing, drying and milling of rice like in Burma Rice Farm, through Agip Oil Company for Bayelsa State Government.
