On March 3, 2023, the Signing Ceremony of the Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO "Project for Revitalization of Rice Cooperatives and Decarbonization of Rice Production and Processing" was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo in the presence of First Secretary, Mr. Aminu Abubakar of the Nigerian Embassy in Japan. The SAA President, Dr. Makoto Kitanaka, signed the grant contract at the ceremony.

This project, funded by the Government of Japan to the amount of 739,414USD, aims to support two rice production and processing cooperatives in Nasarawa State, located in central Nigeria by (1) developing infrastructure for rice aggregation facilities, (2) strengthening cooperative functions through digitalization, and (3) promoting decarbonization of rice production and processing processes.

In implementing the project, SAA will collaborate with Nippon Biodiesel Fuel Co. in Tokyo to introduce a rice inventory management system, and will promote the use of solid fuel made from rice husks called "Momigalite*1 " manufacturing machine developed by Tromso Co., based in Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan, to replace wood charcoal, which is currently consumed in large quantities during rice parboiling, with the aim of achieving carbon neutral.

SAA will collaborate with Japanese private companies and promote "decarbonized rice production by agricultural cooperatives" in Nigeria by leveraging its strengths as an international NGO that has been engaged in agricultural extension in Nigeria for over 30 years.

*1 Momigalite is a rice husk solid fuel produced from a Grind Mill (a machine that grinds rice husks and then compresses and heats them to yield solid fuel in the form of sticks), which has been adopted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a decarbonization product under the Climate Solutions Technologies Initiatives. It does not release additional CO2 during combustion.