Wheat crops to net 784m tonnes in 2023 - NaijaAgroNet

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Early production outlook for 2023 has shown that wheat crops prediction globally is looking at the outturn is anticipated at 784 million tonnes, reports NaijaAgroNet.

In its latest Cereal Supply and Demand Brief, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) informed that its preliminary forecast for world wheat production in 2023, predicting a global outturn of 784 million tonnes, which would be the second highest on record though down from the previous year.

Worldwide Cereal production now @2,640m tonnes

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has updated its forecast on the worldwide cereal production as at the end of 2017 to stand at 2,640 million tonnes, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This, NaijaAgroNet also discovered is 13 per cent higher than 2016 and an all-time record high.

The forecast, NaijaAgroNet gathered, has been raised by 13.5 million tonnes since December, with coarse grains driving the bulk of the increase, due largely to higher maize output expected in China, Mexico and the European Union.

Also, FAO raised its 2017 production forecasts for wheat, due to expectations of bigger harvests in Canada and the Russian Federation, and for rice, following an upward revision in China.

NaijaAgroNet reports that projected cereal utilization in the 2017/18 season was also raised, now up 1.4 per cent from 2016/17. Just as the upward revision includes a notable jump for coarse grains, whose use for livestock feed is forecast to reach an all-time high on the back of sizable increases projected for Brazil, China, the EU and Mexico.

As cereal output, NaijaAgroNet report, is seen expanding more than utilization, stocks are projected to rise above their already high opening levels, leading to a comfortable world stocks-to-use ratio of 27.7 percent, the highest since 2001/02.

In a related development the international trade volumes, are expected to contract slightly for all the major cereals except maize.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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Rice production breaks new record with 496m tonnes

NaijaAgroNet:

The rice production globally is expected to hit a new record this year at almost 496 million tonnes, reports NaijaAgroNet.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), this is owing to favourable weather conditions in much of Asia and on more United States (U.S.) farmers shifting to the crop as a result of its more attractive relative price.

NaijaAgroNet also reports that FAO did not materially change its forecast for world cereal utilization in the coming year, which is expected to grow by 1.6 per cent, led by maize - and to some extent lower-quality wheat supplies - used as animal feed.

The FAO trade forecast for cereals in 2016/17 has been scaled up by almost 9 million tonnes on the back of abundant export availabilities of wheat and coarse grains. 

 

On the coarse grain global output for 2016, NaijaAgroNet reports that estimated 1,329 million tonnes, 2.1 per cent higher than in 2015, buoyed by higher forecast maize output in several countries, in particular the U.S.

Further, NaijaAgroNet reports that the wheat output forecast was also raised to 741 million tonnes, driven by large upward revisions to projections for Australia, North America, India and the Russian Federation. Russia is poised to become the world's largest wheat exporter in 2016/17, overtaking the European Union, where wet weather has hampered this year's crops.

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Nigeria rice imports average 1.5m tonnes annually

NaijaAgroNet :

Investigations have revealed that between 2003 and 2013, Nigeria may have imported rice to the tune of 17,206,077 tonnes with an average import at 1,564,188 million, NaijaAgroNet can authoritatively report.

According to the Statistics Division of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), an intergovernmental organization of the United Nations with over 194 member nations, the division’s mission, NaijaAgroNet  gathered is to improve data collection and dissemination for development and the fight against global hunger and malnutrition.

These imports of 17,206,077 tonnes, NaijaAgroNet reports, came in the heels of against the total production of 114.3 million tonnes within the period under review including both calculated and official data as at the time of filing this report.

For the rice import in 2003, Nigeria recorded 1600701 tonnes, 1396692 in 2004, 1174071 in 2005, 974647 in 2006, 1215758 in 2007, 970787 in 2008, 1160671 in 2009 and 1882759 in 2010, while 2187419 was recorded in 2011 followed by 2455202 a year later, just as 2187370 was the tonnes of rice imported in 2013.

In addition, NaijaAgroNet  gathered that bulk of the data were unearthed from aggregation and includes the official, semi-official, estimated and or calculated data from the Nigerian government by FAO.

The imported tonnes of rice, NaijaAgroNet  investigations revealed may have been "rice in milled equivalent."

Market watchers believed that despite the decline recorded by IRERP that obviously what was gathered as official data, semi-official or even aggregated were crossly in adequate considering the number of smuggled tonnes and the nation’s craze for foreign products which is not alien to agriculture produce.

This is despite the fact that most foreign rice imported into Nigeria takes averagely three to five months to be shipped into the country, therefore fortified thus missing relevant vitamins.

This much was what kept the cost of ‘foreign rice’ as its fondly called locally high, even as there is allegations of such chemical used in preserving the rice to have become instrumental to certain kind of cancer.

Noteworthy is that the initiative on Increased Rice Production and Export Programme (IRPEP) report, released in 2013 by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that it recorded some accomplishments.

These comprised of the discovery that both national and international research institutes working in Nigeria have developed over 52 rice varieties with potential yields of 28 tonnes of paddy per hectare and maturity periods ranging from 95 to 140 days.

IRPEP records also showed increase in the areas cultivated from 2.2 million hectare (ha) in 1999 to 2.8 million ha in 2006 and 3.2 million ha in 2007; while an increase was recorded in annual production from 3.3 million tonnes of milled rice in 2000 to 4.2 million tonnes in 2006, and 4.8 million tonnes in 2007. Although these represented significant increases in output, IRPEP equally highlighted that the targets of 6 million tonnes in 2005 and 9.8 million tonnes in 2007 were not achieved.

NaijaAgroNet  further quoted IRPEP as stating that increase in productivity per hectare as a result of the introduction of high-yielding NERICA rice variety and R-Box technology among others brought about the reduction in rice importation from 2.0 million tonnes in 2003 to less than 1.0 million tonnes in 2006 and 2007, thus, conserving foreign exchange.

Remmy Nweke/ED, Ops

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Pic: A graphic table of Nigeria's rice import between 2003 and 2013