The Flour Milling Association of Nigeria (FMAN), on Thursday, says it has provided support to 8,000 farmers to accelerate wheat cultivation in the country.
The FMAN’s National Programme Manager, Wheat Development Project, Dr Aliyu Samaila, said this during the Green Wheat Farmer Field Day at Kadani, Kura Local Government Area of Kano State.
According to him, farmers green field day exhibits innovative and improved wheat cultivation technologies.
He also said that the day holds across the six operational states, where FMAN established demonstration farms to showcase improved techniques and management practices needed to enhance wheat cultivation in the country.
“Our number one role is to provide a market for wheat farmers in Nigeria: we are expanding our procurement as an industry across the wheat producing states,” he said.
Samaila said that the programme adopted proactive farmer support services to sustainably encourage wheat production and yields per hectare, to enable it compete with rice and other dry season crops.
He further said that the programme had encouraged the cultivation of demonstration farms in the 15 states to provide training on Good Agronomic Practices to the farmers.
According to FMAN boss, the programme has engaged 1,500 wheat farmers to cultivate 1,000 hectares of wheat in Kano.
He also said that the programme would curb spending on the import of wheat.
Earlier, The Executive Director of Lake Chad Research Institute, Prof. Babagana Kabir, said the institute had the national mandate for the genetic improvement of wheat, millet and barley.
Kabir further said that the institute also had the mandate of investigation of the problems of production of all agricultural food crops.
He said that the institute had released four new wheat varieties comprising two bread and two durum wheat varieties.
He gave an assurance that the institute would continue to strive for excellence in research and development to attain the much-desired self-sufficiency in food production.
Also, the District Head of Kura, Alhaji Abdullahi Kabir, commended FMAN, Central Bank of Nigeria and other donor agencies for supporting the farmers.
He urged the farmers to double their efforts in order to improve their yields.
Some of the farmers said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria of Nigeria (NAN) that they received all the needed support from FMAN under the programme to cultivate their farmlands.
They also commended the FMAN and Federal Government for the introduction of improved variety seeds and new farming techniques to enable them to increase their yields. NAN