By Sunday Etuka, Abuja
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Hon. Abubakar Kyari says a total of N309 billion has so far been injected into the economy from wheat harvest.
Hon. Kyari spoke on Monday while giving the Scorecard for the Agric Sector at the Ministerial Sectoral Update for the Present Administration at the National Press Centre, Radio House, Abuja.
The Ministerial Sectoral Update is one of the activities lined up to mark the One-year Anniversary of President Bola Tinubu’s Administration.
Speaking further, the Minister said, in line with the food security target of the present administration, a dry season farming was launched in November, 2023 in Jigawa state with the cultivation of 118,657 hectares of wheat across 15 states for all year farming.
He said, at the end of the season Jigawa state was able to produce 55,000 metric tonnes of wheat.
According to him, about 107,429 wheat farmers were supported with inputs resulting in an output of 474, 628 metric tonnes of wheat.
He noted that the support that was given was 50% subsidy of all inputs; the fertilizer, agro-chemicals like herbicides and insecticides, and also wheat seeds free of charge.
However, he affirmed that 6,756 metric tonnes of wheat was imported from Mexico, while about 5,500 seeds were procured and sourced locally.
He said, in response to Presidential directive on food security, about 42,000 metric tonnes of assaulted food items made up of beans, sorghum, millet and gari were released from the federal government strategic reserves to National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for onward distribution to parts of the country.
“We also procured and distributed to all states and FCT 58,500 metric tonnes of milled rice to crash the escalating price”, he added.
The Minister also disclosed that the Ministry received 2.15 million bags of fertilizer from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for distribution to farmers free of charge, aimed at boosting food security in the country.
While revealing that N1.6billion was used to support ginger farmers in Kaduna and Plateau States, following the attack of ginger blight, he said, the Ministry also conducted aerial control of 1,036 flight hours in frontline states.
Reeling out other achievements, Kyari said, “we trained and empowered 20,755 farmers, including youth and women on agro-business and poverty reduction across the country.
“We also trained 3,350 extension agents in state agricultural development projects across the country”, he said.
