Introduction
Rice is a staple food for most urban and rural households Nigeria, and is therefore a very important food security crop for the country. It is, however, primarily a cash crop as most rice farmers produce and sell nearly 80 percent of total their production for cash. The commodity therefore generates more income for Nigerian farmers than any other cereal crop in the country.
Rice milling is an important economic activity in Nigeria and entails the process of converting paddy into edible rice. There are a number of large scale rice mills operating in the country but about 75-80% of locally milled rice is produced by micro-, small and medium scale rice mills located mostly within rice producing clusters. These mills provide millions of direct and indirect jobs within the formal and informal sector of the economy. Most of the rice therefore consumed by the lower and middle class in the country is produced by micro-, small and medium scale rice millers and hence the need for such category of rice millers to get organized in order to be competitive in the national rice market environment.
The Association of Small and Medium Scale Modular Rice Millers of Nigeria (ASMORIN) is a non-governmental, non-political Association established to among others promote the legitimate interests and build the capacity of medium, small and micro scale rice millers as organized groups of industrialists to help realize the rice self-sufficiency policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria. The association is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission under the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990 with registration certificate number CAC/IT/NO 137332 dated 13th October 2019. The Association has State Chapters and its Head Office is located at Suit 1 & 3 Swift Plaza, Wuye, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Objectives of the Association
The main objective of the Association is the strengthening and empowerment of micro-, small and medium scale rice millers to be competitive as organized group of industrialists in the Nigerian rice industry.
The specific objectives of the Association are:
Promoting and Protecting the interests of micro, small and medium scale rice millers as members of the Association
Soliciting public and private sector support for the development of the rice milling business at micro, small and medium scale levels
Keying into National, Regional and International initiatives targeting the rice value chain (and value chain players) for the benefit of members.
Promoting the use of improved and efficient rice milling technologies and machinery amongst members to enhance their productivity and incomes.
Ensuring compliance to good quality standards in rice milling and other rice value addition activities of members in line with the requirements of regulatory agencies to meet consumer expectations.
Facilitation of members’ access to quality inputs, machinery, markets, credit and other supports.
Improving the technical, organizational and managerial capacity of members towards growing their rice milling businesses
Promoting partnerships and collaboration between the Association and other relevant Commodity Interest Groups along the rice value chain.
Promoting partnerships and collaboration between the Association and national/international organizations and other relevant stakeholders towards the empowerment of Youths and Women in rice milling activities for job creation and self reliance in line with the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) and Technical Education and Vocational Training (TEVT) guidelines
Conduct of entrepreneurship training programmes for interested individuals and entrepreneurs willing to engage in the rice milling business for skills acquisition, income generation and self reliance
Promoting partnerships and collaboration with Large Scale Millers to increase business opportunities and capacity utilization for members.
Vision and Mission
Our Vision: To be a world class Association of Rice Millers that shall be seen as useful and valuable by its members and clients, and a leading contributor towards the realization of the rice self-sufficiency policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Our Mission: Developing and strengthening the capacity of micro, small and medium scale modular rice millers to provide products and services that conform to national and international quality standards and meet consumer expectations and satisfaction.
Organs of the Association
For the purpose of smooth conduct of its affairs and effective attainment of its objectives, the Association has the following structure/organs:
- Board of Trustees
- National Executive Council
- National Advisory Committee
- State Chapters
- Local Government Chapters
- Cluster level
Membership Eligibility
Unlike large scale integrated rice milling; the micro, small and medium scale rice milling business under this Association involves members engaged in a variety of inter-related processes and activities within the rice milling business, which gave way to the emergence of various complementary business models, creating a huge number of jobs for entrepreneurs, women and youths along the rice value chain.
Due to weak capital base and varying operating environment, medium scale rice millers engage mainly in semi/partial integrated rice milling using modular rice milling machines, while the micro and small scale millers and related entrepreneurs engage in single activity businesses or a combination of two or more milling activities as service providers to the medium scale millers and other clients. Such services include but not limited to paddy parboiling, paddy drying, paddy dehusking, rice polishing, de-stoning, grading, packaging etc.
Accordingly, membership into ASMORIN is open to individuals and corporate micro-, small and medium scale rice millers and milling related service providers engaged in all or part of the following rice milling activities:
- Semi integrated multi stage rice milling
- Double stage Rice Milling
- Single pass rice Milling
- Paddy cleaning and drying
- Paddy parboiling
- Rice Destoning
- Rice Polishing
- Rice Color sorting
- Rice Grading
- Packaging
Membership Strength
The ASMORIN Membership Identification and Registration exercise is currently ongoing nationwide. As at the 31st November 2020, a total of 13,000 members have been registered across the country. The membership strength is expected to reach 50,000 by the middle of the year 2021
Activities of Members
Paddy parboiling
This is an activity of subjecting the raw paddy to a heat treatment to gelatinize the starches. It involves three basic steps, namely soaking, steaming and drying of the paddy. Parboiling is generally carried out predominantly by women and Youths as service providers to millers and other clients. The parboiling operation is carried out using parboiling pots or drums. Members of the Association shall be encouraged and supported to acquire and use improved parboiling equipment.
Paddy Drying
This is also an activity being carried out mostly by women and youths. The parboiled paddy is dried to 14% moisture content for safe storage or milling. Drying is done under the sun on tarpaulins or drying slabs, making it a relatively labour intensive operation. The association plans to assist its members to acquire and use small and medium scale mechanical dryers.
Destoning
This is a process of removing stones and other heavy impurities from the paddy before and or after milling. This makes the rice stone-free after the milling operation, which is one of the major requirements of the consumers. Although same medium scale semi-integrated millers have de-stoners integrated into the milling line, most members use the services of independent de-stoning service providers. Such service providers use mainly cabinet and medium scale de-stoners. There are also members that de-stone manually using metallic or local ‘raphia’ trays
Rice Milling
Milling is the process of removing the rice husk and bran from the kernels, and polishing the rice for an appealing look. Most members of the Association use small scale single pass engleberg machines with some able to afford two stage combine/compact milling machine. Few members use multistage semi-integrated machines.
Other Specialized Operations
Very few members of the Association are able to afford some specialized machines such as water polishers, graders, color sorters and automatic packing scales due to the very high costs of acquiring them. The Association plans to encourage and support more medium scale millers to acquire such machines. Specialized service provision with these machines shall also be facilitated.