It’s been almost 5 months since the Nigerian government closed all our land borders in a bid to tackle smuggling, and so far, it looks like there's no end in sight. Since 2013, the government has imposed strict taxes on rice importation (up to 70% on tariffs) due to the high demand for ‘foreign’ rice in Nigeria, and the smugglers aiming to avoid these high charges have taken advantage of the land borders, especially from Cotonou to Lagos, to keep doing business. The border closure came without warning, an attempt to put an end to the blatant importation of Thailand rice through Benin Republic.

There have been consequences – we lost our chicken, tomatoes, and of course, rice, but not all of it. In the last few months, I have definitely seen a resurgence of local rice varieties – in fact, I currently have “Abakaliki rice” in my house, a direct consequence of the scarcity of 'foreign' rice in the market right now.

Nigeria does have a big rice production industry, even though it started to seem like our over-dependence on imported rice was killing that local industry. One can’t help but wonder if the government’s actions might actually be a step in the right direction, even if it is an overreaction. The government is not in the habit of explaining their actions to questioning citizens, but in this case, cutting our dependence on foreign food to grow our own agricultural sector seems to be the major reason for the border closure.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, Nigeria’s rice production has gone up to 3.7 million tonnes annually. That’s a big deal, but not nearly enough to satisfy the 7 million tonnes of rice Nigerians consume every year.

The government has several initiatives put in place to encourage farmers, and the border closure is the latest in the bid to make Nigerians more dependent on our own local produce. Rice farmers are currently beneficiaries of the Central Bank’s ACGSF loan initiative for farmers, which offers very low-interest rates. Added to that, a lot of agriculture fintech startups like Crowdyvest have platforms where investors can connect directly to farmers, cutting out the middleman when it comes to funding. All of these are definitely going to increase rice production, but there are still very big drawbacks that hamper rice farmers, one that every Nigerian can relate to: erratic electricity.

Yep, all the border closure, loans and funding might be in vain if the government doesn’t look into providing steady electricity for machines and irrigation systems. It’s no secret that our lack of electricity hinders our country’s productivity, but in this case, it might be the difference between our rice industry actually realising its potential or another failed government initiative. Rice farmers in the north have expressed these concerns to the BBC:

The technology is there, but what will it run on? Maybe 2020 will be the year the government focuses on infrastructure instead of overreaching policies. Maybe, this is the year that Nigerian local rice becomes the staple instead of the alternative we turn to because we have no other option.

We just have to wait to see how this pans out.