Nigeria gets four varieties of wheat to boost local production

The Flour Milling Association of Nigeria has said four wheat varieties would be introduced to farmers to boost local production.

Dr Aliyu Samaila, the national programme manager, wheat Development Programme, disclosed this in a statement.

The varieties are bread wheat (Borlaug-FMAN and NELOKI-FMAN) with a yield potential of up to 7t/ha and maturity of 85-95 days; and Durum wheat (Bayoreca-FMAN and Cirno-FMAN) with a yield potential of 6t/ha and maturity of 90-95 days.

The development comes amid Nigeria’s continued dependence on wheat imports.

In perspective, Nigeria, one of the largest importers of wheat in Africa, spends billions of dollars yearly to meet growing demand, which was expected to reach 6.06 million tons in the 2022-23 season, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service.

Local production, however, was estimated at 160,000 tons of wheat in 2022–23, up from 90,000 in 2021–22, according to a report from the annual country analysis on the grains industry dated April 7.

Consequently, Samaila said introducing the four varieties is timely to boost Nigeria’s local production capacity.

“The interventions of FMAN over the past three years have yielded improved results with a significant boost in Nigeria’s wheat production capacities.

Before the interventions, farmers recorded an average of 1MT/ha to 2MT/ha.

However, there was a dramatic increase to an average of 3.2MT/ha in 2021/2022”.

Tags: wheat, yield, imports, bread wheat, durum wheat, varieties, Flour Milling Association of Nigeria, Production