By Kure Tashilane.

Nasarawa State Governor Engineer Abdullahi A. Sule has set the tone for an off-takers collaboration with Olam Integrated Rice Mills in Rukubi, Doma Local Government area of the state.

The Governor set the pace for further necessary engagement between the state government team as he mandates Nasarawa State Investment Development Agency’ (NASIDA) to be led by His Excellency the State Deputy Governor Dr. Emmanuel Akabe and the team from Olam Integrated Rice Mills led by the General Manager Brijesh Nandal to go ahead in negotiating the price for the eventual sale of rice paddy to Olam the guaranteed off-taker.

” First, I thank the team from Olam, the General Manager Brijesh Nandal himself for coming to see us this morning concerning the rice Nasarawa state government is harvesting in Jangwa …

” Olam is now our potential off-taker with a huge mill but they don’t have enough paddy. They are definitely in need of Jangwa rice to feed their mills with 200,000 capacity milling facility …

” And from their farm, they don’t produce more than 20% (percent) of the paddy they require – which is why they are going round the state, Benue, Kogi, Kebbi and Taraba to buy paddy for their mills ” The Governor explained.

The Governor equally pointed out that his visit to bagging site at the Lafia Silos premises revealed that the state government team are currently doing what the mills are designed to be doing which is the separation of impurities from the rice before bagging same.

Engineer Sule mandated his deputy Dr. Emmanuel Akabe to take the stage in the negotiation engagement with Olam Integrated Rice Mills management team to arrive at an acceptable price for the sale of the state government rice.

” We are doing this from government to Olam directly, there are no aggregators anywhere along way which is a very good news for us as Olam need paddy badly ” He stated.

The Governor also disclosed that; after the current harvest is over, by December and January 2025, the state will plant rice on at least 4,000 hectares out of the 10,0000 hectares it has altogether between Jangwa and Agwatashi in Obi.

On the state government earlier plans to set up a rice milling facility that would be used in milling it rice after harvest, the Governor said that plan would be set side for now as Olam which is a next door off-taker is in the picture now.