Nigeria’s largest rice farm belonging to Olam Nigeria Limited is over 10,000 hectares and is located in Nasarawa state.
As of Friday, 7th of October 2022, its 4,400 hectares of rice are currently underwater as the dikes around it gave way.
The Agri-Business company’s leadership tried for weeks to battle and save their $140million investment, but the overflowing waters of River Benue and River Niger had their way.
Speaking on the flooding, Ade Adefeko, the Vice president of the Olam group said:
“On our journey to the communities where we operate, it’s terrible. I mean, you need to come and see what is happening. We have over 57 kilometres of dikes surrounding the farms. The farm was built 12 kilometres by 7 kilometres and 57 kilometres of dikes were meant to stop the flow from entering but this was made after the 2012 major crisis. Based on that, we put a lot of things in place, but you know what? Climate change is real.”
This result of this disaster may be a worse record of the food crisis, as the Olam farm provides 25% of Nigeria’s rice.
Flooding has become a menace hitting many parts of the country, especially in the rainy season.
In 2022, it hit hard in many states in the middle belt region of Nigeria, disrupting activities in Lokoja, and now hitting a top Nigerian food production ground.
