Rice consumption in Nigeria has been on a steady increase, from 5.6 million metric tons in 2011 to 6.9 million metric tons presently. Rice is one of the most consumed staples in Nigeria. With this wealth of knowledge, an investment in rice farming was considered by Rotimi William. Believing so much in little beginning, William partnered with a farm owner of 17500 hectares with the promise of sharing the profit. After years of fruitful rice farming, William expanded to 45,000 hectares of land.
William started developing interest in agriculture during his working years with Euromoney Magazine as a journalist. He had the privilege to travel Africa countries like Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Rwanda, Zambia and Ghana. He discovered they had one thing in common -agriculture. After a survey through those African countries, he came back to Nigeria and decided to start a rice farming which is known today as Kereksuk Rice Farm situated in Nasarawa State.
Before the establishment of the 2nd Largest Rice farm, William got employed at Premier Bank to work on matters relating to the agricultural industry. He was elated knowing that he would gain knowledge in the agricultural field. Sadly, this wasn’t achieved. He strived to adopt policies in favour of the agricultural sector in the bank, but this effort was without results.
The reporter who had a degree in economics and no former training in agriculture took advantage of the jet age and googled his way up. He literally learnt all his agricultural skills from Google. Raising of funds was another major challenge William had to daunt over. But he was able to pull through with partnership.
In Nasarawa State where herdsmen posed as a challenge, William was able to utilize them to his advantage through a scheme called Farm-Out Of Poverty (FOOP). Through FOOP initiative, Fulani women are trained on the did and fonts of farming. Fulani men are also employed as securities. Their cattle were also catered for with rice straw. Hence herdsmen no longer pose to be a scarecrow to kereksuk Rice Farm. Today, Rotimi William is an employer of over 600 indigenes of Nasarawa State and with the existence of kereksuk farm, there has been a great decrease in the importation of rice in the country.
