It’s harvest time :-). Ofada is a generic name used to describe all rice produced and processed in the rice producing clusters of south-west Nigeria. The short grain robust rice, believed to be OS6 and ITA 150 varieties, is named after Ofada, a small rural community in Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State. Ofada rice is becoming more prominent and is gaining attention and appeal amongst elites at parties, eat-outs and at homes; sold in fast-food restaurants, and also in 500g boxes by marketers in major cities in Nigeria and beyond.

As a niche and special product originating from certain geographical areas, ofada rice could be likened to the popular “basmati rice” from India and Pakistan estimated to have an export market value of over $1 billion dollars annually.

*click on pictures to enlarge

Rice is one of the value chains in the project. The team and I went out to see how the farmers were getting on with the harvest. We visited our farmers in Ise, the rice grown in this area is called Ofada rice. A brief summary of the progress so far: the project commenced on the 30th of July 2009, since then beneficiaries have increased the hectares cultivated from 1 – 2 hectares to 2 -4 hectares, seen a 5% increase in tonnes harvested hectare, attended training sessions on how to improve yield such as herbicide use, record keeping, use of improved seeds e.t.c.

We brought the press along 🙂

The team

Thanks for stopping by 🙂