Kaduna State governor |
The Executive Director, Lake Chad
Research Institute, Dr. Oluwasina Olabanji has said that Kaduna state
Government in its economy diversification efforts was about to finish planting
five thousand hectares of wheat to upscale productivity towards substituting
import bill of four billion naira annually.
Dr. Olabanji who expressed his
delight about the decision of Kaduna state government under the leadership of
Governor El Rufai to embark on wheat production of about 5,000 hectares out of
the initial plan of 50000 hectares saying the acceleration production of the
crop through anchor borrower programme that ensured off takers would proffer
solution to our high import bill in no distant future to come in the country
stated that the seed planted was supplied by his Institute with best agronomics
provision to farmers.
Dr. Olabanji said the Governor had
expressed interest to invest in the wheat cultivation despite the fact that the
state was not among the first pilot states under the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) anchor borrower programme, adding the planting was already commence to
meet the dry season planting for processing to high quality wheat flour to
checkmate import as planned by the federal government.
According to Dr. Olabanji “Nigeria
for instance currently imports four million metric tons of wheat, spending $44
billion on the commodity every year, a figure that is expected to reach $100
billion by 2030 as Nigerians are predicted to consume over ten million tons of
imported wheat to satisfy their growing demand for non-traditional foods like
pasta, noodles and bread”
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