Dry spell, unpredictable rain push back production of ofada rice in Ekiti

In 2024, Abu Ibrahim raised one million naira and invested it in rice farming in the Orun-Igbemo community of Ekiti State, Nigeria. The community is famous for producing ‘Ofada’ rice, also called ‘Igbemo’ rice.

It is an upland rice grown on dry, non-puddled soils. Farmers often rely on rainfall for its growth. It is a common farming practice in the South-West Nigerian state, and especially amongst the people of Orun and Igbemo.

“I planted two hectares. We expected rain in April, but it didn’t come until the following month. Then it rained once and stopped for over 15 days,” the 28-year-old Mr Ibrahim recalled. “The rice spoiled under the ground, and there was nothing to harvest.”

In May, PREMIUM TIMES visited several rice farms in Igbemo, Aisegba, Ijan and Orun. Many farmers who spoke with our reporter in the communities said that long dry spells, followed by torrential rains and floods, affected their cultivation and harvests during the 2023, 2024, and 2025 farming seasons.

“Many people did not farm rice this year because of what happened last year. And what happened has started happening this year again.” Isiaka Tajudeen, another rice farmer, said, citing another delay in rainfall.

The circle that was altered

Ekiti ranks only behind Ogun State in the production of Ofada rice in Nigeria. Farmers across 10 local government areas in the state plant upland or swamp rice, also known as lowland rice.

Upland farming relies on rain.

“We normally do bush clearing from December to March. Between the end of the month and April, we spray chemicals and start planting,” Mr Tajudeen explained the traditional farming cycle.

However, this pattern has been altered. Farmers now delay planting until rainfall begins, mostly in May or June. This year, rains began in the area in May.

“Those who planted earlier have run into loss; their seeds were eaten by birds, and that is due to the absence of rain,” Mr Tajudeen said.

Shrinking yield

The persistent dry spell has established a long cycle of declining yield for the farmers. They recalled that over a decade ago, the rains predictably arrived in February or March and lasted longer. Then, the harvest was abundant. A hectare yielded 11 to 13 bags of rice, while two hectares gave 20 to 25 bags, a farmer recalled.

Mr Tajudeen said he planted two hectares last year but harvested “only eight bags.” He said many of his peers in the area did not harvest as much.

“This year, I planted with faith in God, because this is the only means I have to take care of my wife and four children,” he added.

The chairperson of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) in Ekiti State, who is also the national youth leader of Farmers in Nigeria, Tunde Adeyemi, corroborated Mr Tajudeen’s claims.

“I used to cultivate 60 to 70 hectares, but I have scaled down to just seven or eight hectares,” Mr Adeyemi said.

He said he used to spend N150,000 to cultivate a hectare, but now needs N600,000 to N700,000. He said a hectare yields about two-and-a-half to three tonnes, with a tonne selling for N120,000 to N130,000. “Do the math,” he said. “I had to diversify into other crops just to feed my family.”

During the visits, PREMIUM TIMES observed a clear shift toward maize and cassava cultivation on many farms, a trend corroborated by academic research.

“I planted over two hectares of maize, while keeping just a single hectare for rice,” Mr Ibrahim told PREMIUM TIMES at his farm.

A scarce intervention

While farmers like Messrs Ibrahim and Adeyemi are exposed to the impact of climate change, government policies designed to protect them seem increasingly disconnected from their realities of the field.

In 2025, the Ekiti State Government said it insured 10,000 farmers in its Area Yield Insurance Cover scheme.

According to the state’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Ebenezer Boluwade, the scheme was designed to protect farmers against unforeseen risks and climate-related issues following the huge losses they suffered in previous years.

The protective policy is structured under an insurance policy with Leadway Insurance, and PULA Advisors as underwriters.

It is part of the broader national “Africa 10 Million Climate-Resilient Farmers Initiative,” coordinated by the Office of the Vice President and the Presidential Food Systems Coordinating Unit (PFSCU).

The Ekiti State Government said it provided 50 per cent counterpart funding for the project.

However, farmers in communities visited told PREMIUM TIMES that they had never heard about this scheme.

The RIFAN chairman was also unaware of it.

“I have never heard of such,” he said.

However, the commissioner, Mr Boluwade, said the scheme involved farmers who benefited from the administration’s previous interventions.

“Let me put the records straight. We insured about 7,000 farmers, and were the first state in Nigeria to pay the premium. Priority was accorded to farmers who benefited from any of our production interventions like the free land clearing for clusters, 50 per cent subsidy on mechanisation, seeds, agrochemicals and fertiliser.”

The commissioner also explained that the insurance covers rice and cassava farmers.

“The farmers cut across two commodities, which include cassava and rice. The insurance policy under Leadway Insurance, with PULA Advisors as underwriter, was given adequate publicity using our various extension channels, radio and social media platforms.

“However, from the operational point of view, 33 farmers were randomly selected by the system across the state for verification and assessments, visits before and after harvesting, using their verification protocols to agree on the insured amount. I am sure that if you interviewed any of these farmers, their responses would affirm that EKSG issued an insurance policy for the farming communities in the State. We are set to upscale to 10,000 farmers in the year 2026,” he added.

Yet this account contrasted sharply with the conditions on the ground, as revealed by interviews with local rice growers and key leaders within the farmers’ association. None of the over a dozen rice farmers interviewed for this report have benefited from the scheme.

Some surmised that the beneficiaries were political farmers associated with the government.

Swamp farming system and flood

The force of climate change also affects swamp or lowland rice farmers, who experience heavy flooding when it finally rains.

These farmers cultivate rice in naturally waterlogged, low-lying wetlands, floodplains, and river basins.

Adeyemi Obafemi in Ijan-Ekiti explained that they often wait till the rain fully starts before planting.

However, the shift in the rain pattern, which often commences late and lasts longer than expected, sometimes into December, leads to a rise in river levels and, consequently, flooding of their farms.

“There are two rivers around here where we farm, the Ogbese and Isesi. Before now, everything was normal. They were not causing floods like now,” Mr Obafemi said.

“About 10 years ago, there would have been enough and moderate rain by July for our farming, and by September the rain would have subsided enough for harvest. But now, the rain will continue till October, which most of the time sweeps away our rice,” he said.

“There was a year when we lost over N100 million to this flood; it was one private insurance firm that came and gave us like N40 million. And this flood has continued every year.”

A story about Idowu, a 47-year-old swamp rice farmer, was told to illustrate farmers’ desperate situations. The father of five died after a flood damaged his farm last year.

Narrating the tragedy, Mr Adeyemi said Mr Idowu was one of the largest rice farmers in the state.

“He took a loan from the bank, about N16 million and couldn’t pay. We did some fundraising among ourselves, raised around three to four million naira, to help him. The flood was so much. The whole farm was submerged for about three weeks. And it was time for him to harvest. It was a terrible situation.

“So, the bank was on his neck. The insurance company came. I think they gave him around N1.2 million. One day, he just said he was going to the farm. He called us later and said his health was failing. And that was the end,” Mr Adeyemi narrated.

National Implications

Ironically, Kehinde Ajilosun, an Igbemo rice trader at the Oja Oba market in Ado-Ekiti, told our reporter that many non-indegenes in the state do not eat the local rice.

“The indigenous people eat it very well, especially because of its health benefits. You know this rice is healthy for diabetes patients, but it is not commonly bought by others. And you know, it is more expensive than the foreign rice,” Mrs Ajilosun said to our reporter.

PREMIUM TIMEs noticed that foreign brands dominated the market. Only about 10 traders sell Igbemo rice at Oja Oba and Awedele markets in the state capital.

Rice is a staple food in Nigeria. With a population exceeding 200 million, the country’s rice consumption has surpassed seven million metric tonnes annually over the past five years. In 2024 alone, it reached approximately 7.6 million metric tonnes, up from 7.55 million in 2023 and 7.5 million in 2022.

However, while consumption continues to increase, local production has been declining, resulting in heavy reliance on imports to meet demand.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), rice production in Nigeria slowed to 5.23 million metric tonnes in 2024, down from 5.61 million metric tonnes in 2023 and 5.41 million metric tonnes in 2022.

In 2024, importation surged to 2.4 million metric tonnes from 1.89 million in 2023.

Mitigating climate change

Mr Adeyemi said farmers need support to cope with the changing climate.

“NIMET (the Nigerian meteorological agency) is trying, but most of the predictions don’t really come as expected.”

Talking about the adoption of irrigation farming, he stressed that many farmers cannot afford it.

“We have dams in Ekiti, but when you consider the cost of pumping water into the farms, it outweighs what you are going to make from rice production itself. To fuel such is very expensive.”

He said during the Federal Government Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), Ekiti registered 35,000 rice farmers, but many have pulled out of the rice business.

“Free fertiliser not solution”

Mr Adeyemi also criticised the practice of distributing fertiliser as a farmer empowerment strategy, arguing that the approach has failed to deliver meaningful outcomes.

For decades, Nigerian authorities have distributed fertilisers and agrochemicals to help farmers. However, these have yielded questionable results in boosting agricultural output, leading many farmers to express strong dissatisfaction with the approach.

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Government reaction

In a WhatsApp conversation, Mr Boluwade, the agric commissioner, described Ekiti as the largest rice producer in the South-west. “We are presently nearing 200,000 metric tons/year,” he stated.

“We are working with various agencies, both locally and internationally, to develop tools and strategies to adapt climate-smart sustainability practices for optimal rice production. We recently visited some African countries with the support of the Global Centre for Adaptation in the Netherlands, and with the guidance of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), as a build-up to the setting up of the Agricultural Transformation Centres (ATCs) towards the development of a resilient seeds system value chain.”

The commissioner also disclosed that the state has commenced a partnership with some rice-producing firms to achieve its goals.

“A commercial rice mill named JMK Rice is about to commence production soon. It has two mills, but starting with a 5-ton/hour mill capacity. This will drastically create a multiplier effect in the rice value chain in the state,” he said

He said Ekiti has been selected as the first pilot state for a new Nigeria-Brazil bilateral agricultural technology initiative “designed to assist our farmers withstand the challenges of climate change.”

This reporting was completed with the support of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID).