The federal government is to provide 50 percent subsidy to wheat farmers across the country to enhance food security, the minister of agriculture and food security, Abubakar Kyari, has said.
Kyari, who was in Kano yesterday to supervise wheat seeds production, expressed satisfaction with what he saw, describing it as the vital component of wheat farming.
He stated that President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda was aimed at making sure that Nigeria increases food production from next month with wheat farming coming up in the dry season.
“The Jigawa State government has shown interest in wheat farming as it has provided 40,000 hectares for wheat farming to boost the 70,000 hectares set aside by the federal government,” he said.
The minister said the federal government was making effort to have enough seeds to cover the 70,000 hectares of land provided for wheat farming.
He said locally produced seeds were well controlled and managed to meet required standards and provide good seed breeds for production of enough wheat that would phase out importation of the product by next year, thus reducing foreign exchange spending.
Abubakar Kyari noted that the federal government’s plan is to secure the nation’s food production and become self-sufficient, saying local production is one way by which importation of seeds and wheat can be completely stopped.
“In the next four to five years, with the programme set out, Nigeria will completely stop importation of wheat seeds and become self-sufficient with local production that would enhance food production and food security,” he said.
The minister was at the National Wheat Council warehouse at Sharada in Kano, from where he also visited A.A. Albasu Grain Company and Alyumna Seeds Production Company.
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