Nigeria will ensure the use of 250,000 hectares of land for wheat cultivation

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture has partnered with a private firm, Ghas Integrated Services Limited to empower wheat farmers in Kano and Jigawa with farm inputs and varieties.

At the flag off of the distribution exercise held in Gaya Local Government Area of Kano State, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar said the Buhari administration is ever committed to agricultural development in the country while commending the effort of the company in helping to realise the set goals.

The minister, who was represented by the ministry’s State Coordinator, Abba Gana said, “Today is very historic having a private firm doing a robust project of inputs distribution particularly in respect of wheat as one of the most important crops internationally.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria has a plan by next year to make sure 250,000 hectares of land is put into use in cultivating wheat crops.

“If a private organisation can cultivate 500,000 and we did 250,000, we are expecting more so that we can feed ourselves within the shortest possible time.

“What we have seen today has given us confidence. There is a policy document at the ministry now that wheat cultivation will not be as it was before when brought into practice.”

He added that food security is one of the most dangerous insecurity and as such will be given the highest attention.

On his part, the Managing Director, Samuel Talba said, the programme will cost about 500 million euro in a span of fifteen years.

“We are to farm 500,000 hectares of land and this programme is aimed to do two season of wheat farming every year and every farmer will have one pumping machine, one hectare of land and six bags of NPK and three bags of urea which means, to one hectare, is 10 bags of fertiliser and also sprayer, Insecticides and herbicides.

“We have a technology set in place where from our office, we will be able to monitor the farmers through the code of the farms.”

He added that the organisation has gone into research to know what is making the attempt of the government to fail most especially in bringing back what they have given out and built its strength where there is weakness.

Tags: sown area, wheat, Nigeria