How Nigerian govt distributed rice seeds to companies in 2020 Nigeria officially banned the importation of rice two years ago, to improve the local production of rice. 2 min read As Nigeria plans to increase the production of rice, 20 seed companies benefited from rice seed distribution by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural (FMARD) across the 36 states of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory in 2020. This was disclosed in a document obtained by PREMIUM TIMES on Monday. Nigeria officially banned the importation of rice two years ago, to improve the local production of rice. In 2017, the production of rice paddy rose to about seven million metric tons (mmt) under the Buhari administration, which seems to be the highest since 1999.