Wheat farmers angered, demand speedy mop-up, quality seed

Wheat Stakeholders

Wheat farmers across the producing states of the nation have expressed their unhappiness to post harvest challenges associated with cost just as they demanded government intervention for mop up the excesses and provision of quality seeds.

This position was taken during the wheat farmers’ convergence at Abuja where conspicuous challenges militating against the accelerated programme of the crop productivity towards substituting billion of dollar spent on imports were highlighted with a call on government to ensure mop-up as initially agreed when they were requested to go into production even without recourse to the off takers.

Some of the farmers told Food Farm News that it was high time government woke up to its responsibility if it actually wanted to achieve an agriculturally diversified economy which was the hallmark of this Buhari administration.

The chairman, wheat producers, Gombe state, Mr Batari Dauda, who spoke amongst others said that government needs to intervene by speedily mopping up the wheat excess across the country so as to further encourage farmers to plant more against the 2017/18 seasons adding that most of the wheat farmers are already abandoning farming for other businesses.

Speaking on availability of improved seeds, the chairman said that the initial target of 10, 000 hectares in the state was hindered due to lack of improved seeds as he stated “the cultivation was limited by lack of quality seeds and farming implements. Most of the farmers said the seed they secured was plantable materials which mean the seeds that had been planted for over five years”

He stated further that “this results to deterioration in terms of quality because the yield will not be good. Initially Lake Chad Research Institute brought us foundation seed, but the problem we had with them is that the seed is not sufficient but was good”

Mr. Dauda said those that were able to plant the crop early realized three to four tons on each hectare while those that planted late realized between one and two tons per hectare.

However Food farm news gathered that a state government in the North West was already querying a purchase of wheat grains for farmers. Our source refused to tell us the particular state but pointed investigation is ongoing to unruffled the whole process that led to this purchase.

Our anonymous source pointed that the high proliferation of fake seeds in circulation was as resource of road sides purchase of grains without recourse to register agro dealers or seeds producers adding wheat revival in Nigeria may be scuttled if immediate action is not taken as incidence of bad seeds in some states in the North west was still giving a repercussion of what a bad seeds can inflict on the economy.