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Alhaji Nura Abdullahi Attajiri has been a rice farmer since 1983 at
Bakalori irrigation area of Zamfara State and recently established a rice
mill in Sokoto with a N20 million loan he said he did not apply for.
Excerpts:
What motivated you to establish a rice mill though you were a
farmer?
There are several reasons responsible for taking that decision. First, I
want to have a value chain for my agribusiness and secondly, I realised
that the people of the old Sokoto state that include Sokoto, Kebbi and
Zamfara states are predominantly farmers. We are into large production
of rice and several other crops, vegetables and rearing of animals but we
did not have any mill or factory for the processing of our farm produce. I
knew very well that processing and good packaging add value to goods,
including crops.
I detest the idea of producing rice here and taking it to some other
states to mill then bring it back here to sell. I had the idea and the
interest but I did not have the capital until the Sokoto State government
gave me N20 million loan through Fidelity Bank which I used to buy all
these machines and setup the mill.
How difficult was the process of accessing the loan?
I did not even apply for the loan. In fact, the process of giving me the
loan was completed before I even know about it. I met the state
commissioner for agriculture at a function and he told me he had been
looking for me to tell me that they have approved agric loan for me. I
have never applied for any loan and I have never, even in a discussion,
told anybody that I wanted loan. But I know that you people have written
a lot about my farm; it is possible that was where they saw it. Right there,
I told him since you decide to surprise me; I promise not to let you down.
I went to Fidelity Bank and opened an account. Few days later, I
received an alert from the bank that N20 million has been paid into my
account. I did a feasibility study on how to establish this mill. I consulted
the Bank of Agriculture and the Bank of Industry where I got useful
pieces of advice. I bought these machines in Kano.
Has the state government cared to come and see what you have
done with the money?
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2/10/2018 ‘I setup rice mill with N20m loan from Sokoto govt’
Yes, the state governor personally visited this mill and saw for himself
what I have been able to do. He asked me if I have any other thing I
require. I told him of my plans to expand the factory by having a feed mill
so as to utilise the husk and other waste being generated from the rice
mill. He promised to assist me further. Just yesterday I was told by
government officials that the state governor has again approved another
N10 million loan for me that is ready for collection.
How do you intend to operate the mill; is it as commercial or for
your farm produce alone?
This rice you see us milling now belongs to another farmer. He
registered a rice company and printed his bags. When we mill the rice for
him, we will package it and he will take it to the market and sell. I also
have my registered company and bags that I use to package my rice and
sell in the open market. You saw the farmer that requested that he wants
to bring 200 bags for milling but I told him to bring 100 bags first. The
demand for milling by farmers is very high.
It seems all the machines are using electricity; how are you
copping with epileptic power supply?
You can see that we have some electric generators that are making the
cost of production so high because of the diesel they consume. But I
have contacted the Sokoto Energy Resource Centre and they are
working towards turning some of the waste from the mill into energy
generation to provide electricity for us. In fact, as a way of
encouragement, they promised to give me some of the equipment free of
charge and subsidise the cost of others. At the moment, the cost of
production is very high because of electricity. That is why in some cases,
despite the cost of transportation and Customs duty, some imported food
items are cheaper than locally produced ones.
What other things, in terms of machines, do you require for this
mill?
You can see that we are drying the rice manually under the sun. We
require automatic dryer, additional per-boiler in addition to the feed mill I
told you. The process of manual drying is so tasking that when you sun-
dry, you must be turning the rice after every 5 to 10 minutes to ensure
that every part of it dries at the same time.
Have you done a market survey to know if there will be good market
for the animal feed since there are grasses everywhere here?
You know, there are more domestic animals in Niger Republic than here.
During the dry season you see their farmers coming here in search of
feed for their animals. Feed is in very high demand here and there. I
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2/10/2018 ‘I setup rice mill with N20m loan from Sokoto govt’
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2/10/2018 ‘I setup rice mill with N20m loan from Sokoto govt’
stage of washing is always not less than 100 kilogrammes. By the time
the rice gets into the soaking tanks, it is already clean and pure because
the dirty must have been washed away. We shall then heat water with
this tank and parboil the rice with the water for some hours then we
steam it. After steaming then we blow it and then dry it.
We do not have facility for automatic drying; instead, we sun-dry it for a
day or more depending on the weather. After drying it, then we pack it to
the mill where we feed the De-stoner machine with it for further cleansing
and peeling. De-stoner also removes all stones and impunities from the
rice then feed the polisher 1 machine. That machine is responsible for
removing the entire husk and any leftover impunity. Mind you, polisher 1
cannot polish the rice as expected yet until it passes to the second
polisher that will process and bring it out very cleaner. If you see the rice
breaking, it means it did not dry very well before been brought for milling.
Once the rice is well dried, you will find it long after milling. After that
then we proceed to the packing and bagging section. That is the detailed
milling procedure in this factory.
A part from the popular rice that people cook and eat with stew,
there is tuwo rice that they use in cooking tuwo shinkafa. Do you
mill that one also?
Yes, we mill a lot of it but mainly on request. But our machines can mill it
very well. We have been milling it for people and it comes out very clean
and attractive.
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