The Federal Government has resolved to draw up plans towards preservation of excess rice produce in the Strategic Grain Reserves to avoid glut as well as sustain farmers’ interest in the crop production.

Akinwunmi Adesina, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, stated this at the US-Nigeria Commodity Storage and Training Workshop on Silo Complex and Management in Abuja.

Adesina, who was represented by the Director, Strategic Grain Reserves Department in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Olajide Olumeko said the result of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) is already manifesting with substantial increase.

He revealed that there is currently abundant harvest of rice due to strategies put in place, stating that farmers produce about 1.1 million tons from the dry season farming the ministry implemented for the first time in 2012, indicating that the millers are not able to purchase them completely and may result in glut, if urgent steps are not taken to address the issue.

He purported to have directed the Strategic Grain Reserves Department to work out modalities for mopping-up the excess production into the reserves as a strategy of sustaining the interest of farmers to remain in production.

The minister also said that this would likely be the trend for other crops to minimise post-harvest losses through effective and efficient storage.