Stakeholders predict increase in global rice price as floods ravage farms

There are indications that the prices of rice, a common staple food in Nigeria, will increase astronomically. Apart from the climatic hazard such as flood that is affecting the production of the produce worldwide, the removal of petrol subsidy and devaluation of the Nigeria naira, are other factors that are contributing to the surge in the price of the product in the country. The issue of flood ravaging farmlands is not only peculiar to Nigeria, as Bangladesh, the world’s third-largest rice producer, which typically produces nearly 40 million tons of rice a year to feed its population of 170 million, was also hit recently. It would be recalled that floods in Bangladesh have destroyed an estimated 1.1 million metric tons of rice, according to data from its agriculture ministry, prompting the country to ramp up imports of the staple grain amid soaring food prices. Floods brought by heavy monsoon rains and torrential upstream runoff struck the country in two major waves in August and ...