Why government must change approach to wheat production
As this year’s wheat planting calendar fast approaches, farmers, especially those in Kano State, have expressed concern over what they termed government’s lackadaisical approach to the production of the crop in the country despite the huge gap in meeting up with a certain percentage of local demand.
Wheat farmers believe that for the glory of rice production in the country to be restored, there is a need for the federal government to revisit its policies, with a view to reviving it to boost production within the producing states.
A wheat farmer in Kano State, Alhaji Usman Bashir, lamented that production of the crop was facing a serious setback as farmers were left to face all the challenges without government’s intervention despite the growing demand in the country. He added that policies on wheat production should be revisited as a matter of urgency.
According to him, since the Plateau incident after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lake Chad Research Institute stopped giving certified wheat seeds to farmers.
“Some years ago, every wheat farmer usually waited for Lake Chad to issue seeds to farmers because as an institute with a mandate in the country, farmers had confidence in the institute’s interventions. Sadly, since the Plateau incident, the interventions stopped completely, at least for Kano farmers, and that has negatively affected production seriously,” he said.
Similarly, another farmer in the state, Malam Habibu Hassan, said wheat farming was relegated to the lowest level despite the growing need to attach more attention to it to boost production locally. He explained that the current deficit in demand and supply value chain in the country had been felt by every Nigerian. He said the Ukraine-Russia crisis should have served as a catalyst that would have pushed the country towards taking measures that would boost wheat production in the country.
He lamented that wheat farmers were moving to rice because it received the needed attention.
“We were made to believe that government would encourage us to go into wet-season farming as a measure that would boost production and complement the deficit of dry season farming. But to our dismay, even the dry season production, which is the normal way of producing wheat, is now abandoned and left to fend for itself without any intervention from the government. I am afraid that if things are allowed to continue going like this, many wheat farmers will definitely abandon it,” he lamented.
These agitations were coming at a point when the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, described as unacceptable, the $2bn annual wheat importation to the country.
Although the minister has made it clear that Nigeria has all it takes to be selfsufficient in wheat production, not much is said to have been done in assisting farmers in most producing states.
It can also be recalled that a 2020 CBN report had revealed that Nigeria had over one million hectares of land that could be used for farming. Wheat farmers are still complaining that nothing has been done to them despite the fast approaching planting period.
However, findings have shown that private seed producing companies and millers in the country have taken up the challenge by supplying certified seeds to farmers to grow.
According to a wheat farmer, Malam Sani Aliyu, some seed companies have already distributed foundation seeds to wheat farmers for multiplication. He added that as far as he was concerned, this is not helping wheat production although the gesture is far better than none.
“Already, some seed companies have distributed foundation seeds to some accredited wheat farmers for multiplication. It is clear that seed production has about 25 per cent more profit than grain production. The question here is: How will this assist in boosting wheat production? No doubt, seed producers will gain, but how many farmers are involved, and how much seed would they be able to multiply? These are the questions that need to be addressed,” he said.
He further explained that it is unfortunate that up till this moment when preparation for the planting season has commenced, nothing seems to be coming from the government but stories and mouthwatering empty promises.
“If really the government is serious in what it has been saying, we should have seen at least an element of it in what is happening today. It is only the millers and seed companies that are doing something now, and the season will soon commence. If nothing is done now, then anything after now shouldn’t be regarded as intervention but a waste of resources that will not serve any purpose at all,” he concluded.