The Federal Government says it is targeting the production of eight million tonnes of paddy by rice farmers across the country in 2018 wet season. The minister said that the country was currently producing between 5.8 million and six million tonnes of paddy, adding that it was targeting the production of nine million tonnes by 2019. He said that the rice revolution was the most outstanding achievement recorded in the Buhari-administration’s economic diversification efforts in three years. Ogbeh said that the feats in the rice revolution were attained through the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The minister, who noted that in the past, Nigeria spent over five million U.S. dollars a day on rice importation, said that rice importation had reduced by 95 per cent from December 2015 till date.