The Japanese government has provided a grant of $3.5 million to the National Cereals Research Institute to boost production of foundation rice seed. The fund is targeted at providing tractors, harvesters, and weather tracking equipment for the institute.
 
The Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Hideo Suzuki, while speaking at the official take-off of the Enhancement of Rice Seeds Production System project at the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) in Badegg, Niger State, said the initiative was aimed at addressing the bottleneck in the availability of high-quality breeder and foundation seeds necessary to maximise crop yields.
 
He said that the financial injection completely bypasses direct cash transfers, focusing exclusively on aggressive capital expenditure to modernise the NCRI’s operational capabilities, adding that by upgrading the physical infrastructure, the project intends to reduce the labour-intensive inefficiencies that have historically plagued Nigerian seed cultivation.
 
The grant is aimed at financing an inventory of modern agricultural machinery distributed across the NCRI headquarters and its outstations in Niger and Oyo states.
 
The infrastructure includes 20 medium-sized agricultural tractors for large-scale soil preparation.

Three automated rice transplanters to expedite the planting cycle, four small combine harvesters to minimise post-harvest grain loss, two heavy-duty excavators for land clearing and irrigation management, and four constant-temperature germination testers to ensure seed viability.
 
Others are three automated weather observation systems to track critical micro-climate data, and seven flat drying machines engineered for advanced post-harvest processing.
 
The High Commissioner emphasised that the project also includes comprehensive technical assistance, rigorous maintenance training, and institutional capacity development to ensure the hardware translates into long-term agricultural sustainability.
 
The Japanese grant also directly subsidises the Federal Government’s Second National Rice Development Strategy (2020–2030) to double domestic rice output by the end of the decade.