At the recently concluded annual national wheat planning meeting in Zaria, which was organised by the Lake Chad Research Institute based in Maiduguri, in collaboration with International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Tunis, Nigerian farmers re-assured that given the right support, they can produce wheat to meet national requirements. ABOLAJI ADEBAYO captures their views in this report.
Wheat farmers across the country have restated their commitment to producing wheat in larger scale in order to meet national needs and enable government to process the excess harvests for exports.
The farmers, who spoke during their just concluded meeting in Zaria, however hinged the realisation of their dreams on the continuity of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda, ATA, and wheat value chain component and urged the new administration to sustain the agenda for national benefits.
They disclosed that the country, being the leading export destination and the third overall largest importer of USA wheat, spends over N700 billion of foreign exchange annually on its importation, arising from persistent deficits between domestic needs and local production. Leading the team of speakers in support of wheat agenda, Mallam Sani Laden from Zamfara State, who has 35 years of farming experience in Bakolori, drew a comparison between earlier years and the period between 2011 and 2014.
Laden, a farmer of wheat, rice, sweet potato, beans and maize, and the current chairman of Talata Mafara Water Users Association, recalled that a bag of wheat was sold at N2,000 before the appointment of Dr. Akinwumi Adesina as Minister, which has now increased to N15,000 per bag.
Laden, who promised the farmers’ support for any incoming minster that uphold and improve on the existing policies made by the former minister, warned that they would not hesitate to protest and critisise any shortcoming that may be caused by derailing from the good policies. He noted that the ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development under Adesina provided seed and fertilizer for the farmers, while the Ministry Of Water Resources brought tractors.
The Project Manager of Bakolori Irrigation Scheme, Lawal Maidoki, said Bakolori alone had the capacity to cultivate 15,000 hectares of wheat, adding that Nigerian farmers could produce the required wheat for both local consumption and exportation if given the necessary support. Also speaking, the Chairman of Kebbi State Wheat Farmers, Abdullahi Saidu Argungu, disclosed that he produced 2,000 metric tons of whe
at in 2013/2014 and has increased it to 5,000 metric tons in 2014/2015. “Flour Mills of Nigeria tested our wheat and attested that our wheat is good. In Kebbi State warehouses, we have mopped up 300 metric tons of Atilla (varieties of wheat) and farmers are happy at N15,000 per 100 kg.
Wheat, compared with rice, is not hard to grow as over 2,000 registered farmers are now doing wheat. Farmers are aware that one needs little money to do wheat,” Argungu said. Based on the regional advantages peculiar to each state and with mandate on wheat improvement, some of the participants suggested that each state should specialise in specific varieties so as to encourage offtakers and millers.
This, they believed would ensure uniformity as they argued that if various varieties are grown and aggregated together, their non-uniformity might discourage the millers. For instance, the representative of Plateau State’s Agricultural Development Programme, Engr. Philip Gonap, who spoke about the advantage his state has over many other wheat-growing states, explained that irrigated and rain-fed wheat production was possible in Plateau.
He added that the state has nine local government areas with temperate weather while eight local government areas have tropical weather. Also, an agricultural extension official at the Institute of Agricultural Research, IAR, Zaria, Aminu Sharifai, noted that the wheatproducing states were 10 among which there were two hubs of wheat programmes: the Kano and the Maiduguri hubs, each made of three innovation platforms.
Sharifai spoke about what he described as the “reawakening of wheat production activities in Nigeria,” leading to “increase in wheat yield per hectare from 2 to 6 metric tons (or 40 to 60 bags per hectare, up from 10 bags per hectare).” The 10 states are Kano, Jigawa, Borno, Kebbi, Gombe, Yobe (included, but inputs not provided for beneficiaries, due to security challenges), Sokoto, Zamfara, Bauchi, Plateau and Katsina.
The Yobe case would have brought the total number to 11. But the numbers of states effectively covered were 10. However, the President of Borno State Youth Farmers, Baba Gana Tijjani, who acknowledged that the Lake Chad Research Institute has trained 100 youth farmers, lamented that, due to insurgency, activities have been halted.
One of the new opportunities arising from the wheat value chain is that of local seed production. So far, the following companies have been identified as registered seed companies recognised in the wheat value chain: Rahama Integrated Seed Venture (Kano), Premier Seed (Zaria), Maina Seed (Kano), Nwobodo Seed (Jigawa), and farmers’ outgrowers.
There appears to be no problem in getting seed to produce wheat locally at this stage. It was disclosed that wheat seed production for 2014 to 2015 recorded an 82 per cent increase over the previous year while in the 2015 to 2016 wheat season, the area of land to be cultivated has been estimated at 150,000 hectares.
Meanwhile, 6.0 metric tons of breeder seed, 15,000 metric tons of foundation seed and 30,000 MT of certified seed, plus 15,000 MT, representing a 50 per cent of farmers’ retention, will be needed. The President of Wheat Farmers’ Association of Nigeria, Salim Muhammed, noted that the wheat programme had been receiving the industry’s attention.
According to him, the initial request of 1,000 MT has been made by millers; but they have been asking for 50,000 MT monthly, that is about 600,000 MT annually. He said 1,000 farmers at 4 MT per hectare will produce 400,000 MT per annum, which is yet to meet the 600,000 MT requested by the milling industry.
In his remarks at the forum, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development, Mr. Sonny Echono, who was represented at the occasion by Mrs. Karima Babangida, said that 38,951 farmers benefited from the seed distributed at 10 per cent subsidy. He disclosed that budget had been set aside for buy-back of the wheat produced.
Dr. Gbenga Olabanji, who is also the executive director of Lake Chad Research Institute, with mandate on wheat improvement, suggested that each state should specialise in specific varieties so as to encourage off-takers and millers.
He said that this approach would ensure uniformity and that if various varieties were grown and aggregated together, their non-uniformity will discourage the millers. In conclusion, he advised that “all hands must be on deck to make agriculture work for the country.”