Mixed reactions in Kebbi over wheat potentials

He said the institution has varieties of under-utilised seed because of insecurity situation in Maiduguri, hence, an advantage to the people of Kebbi to cash in.The chairman said the association has over 10,000 members in 10 local government areas that took part in wheat production in the state, namely: Argungu, Augie, Birnin Kebbi, Jega, Dandi, […]

He said the institution has varieties of under-utilised seed because of insecurity situation in Maiduguri, hence, an advantage to the people of Kebbi to cash in.
The chairman said the association has over 10,000 members in 10 local government areas that took part in wheat production in the state, namely: Argungu, Augie, Birnin Kebbi, Jega, Dandi, Kalgo, Bunza, Suru, Bagudo, Maiyama, Yauri and Zuru.
He said he produced 70,000 Kg which is equivalent to 1,400 bags of 50Kg.
“The state government assisted farmers with two bags at GES rate per farmer. Apart from rice, Wheat is one of the best farm products with high yield in the state.
“Government was earlier apprehensive, thinking that wheat will take over the rice programme in the state. I want to tell you that wheat, like rice, is a leading crop in Kebbi State.”
He, however, observed that some of the challenges the farmers are encountering is in the area of hard clay soil and water logging in some places.
Argungu noted that another challenge is the presence of rats that often destroy the wheat.
But in terms of management, he continued, wheat is very easy to manage because there is no need for weeding and requires only a minimum of 72 days from the period of planting to harvest.
“Irrigation is once a week or after every 10 days. It can also be grown in areas where carrots, potatoes, vegetable or any perishable can grow.
“Other problem is buy-back but, the state government has taken care of that. The state government has invested N17.5million to purchase wheat produced this year. With this encouragement from government, I believe Kebbi will rank as the best wheat producing state in Nigeria.
He called on the government to establish a cottage wheat flour mill industry in the state.
The Kebbi State Director of Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Kelvin Tekpat, said wheat in the state is under-utilised.
He said there are 500,000 flood plains suitable for wheat production in the state, adding that the temperature and climatic conditions are also conducive for wheat production.
He said: “During the dry season, October-January, the average temperature is about 20 degree centigrade. This temperature is suitable for high yield; particularly with the introduction of tropical variety of wheat that can produce high yield in most tropical areas in the state. You know wheat is a temperate crop and tropical areas favour its production.
“In addition to that, we also have a good climate that is ideal. Therefore, the farmers are ready, the climatic conditions are ideal and the state government is also supporting farmers with fertilisers and other inputs.”
He said areas like Warra, Kamba, Jega, Argungu,Augie are suitable flood plains for wheat production.
The director said wheat farmers association has been encouraged to mobilise about 30,000 farmers during the 2013-2014 dry season farming.
“But because of the inadequacy of seeds, only 500 farmers benefited from the distribution in the last season.
“From these 25 metric tonnes, the farmers did 70,000 metric tonnes of harvest,” he said.
Tekpat added: “The 30,000 farmers are happy with this and, therefore, are ready for the 2014-2015 dry season production periods. Each farmer will require about 50Kg of the seed, which will give a total of 1.5 million Kg for that programme,” he said.
He said the federal government used to spend over N600 million annually to import wheat, adding: “If we can succeed in this drive, and we have the potentials, then, Kebbi State will be saving the federal government a lot of foreign exchange.
“The state would have also succeeded in empowering most of its youths by giving them job. Wheat farming is easy.
“Probably you will require watering only once in a week. Therefore, cost of production of wheat is low and the price of wheat is very good. Even at the market, a measure is between N200 to N300. So, you can imagine what the farmers stand to gain.”
The director, called on farmers to take up wheat production for their own benefit and development of the state and the country.
Some farmers who spoke to our correspondent in Jega, Yauri and Warra, however, disputed this claim.
Mustapha Yahaya Jega, speaking on behalf of other farmers in Jega said: “it is a false claim if somebody is making because unlike in Kano, we don’t consume wheat as our delicacy. So why produce what you don’t consume?
“Therefore, to the best of most farmers’ knowledge here, only rice is produced in large quantity, especially in the dry season because of heavy flood that may likely destroy farmlands in the rainy season.
“Wheat was last produced in large quantity many years ago and since then, we have decided to settle for rice which we consume and have market for it”
The District Head of Cifamini in Warra, Ngaski LGA, Mallam Mohammed Dantsoho, said people don’t produce wheat due to insufficient seeds.
“We only had high yield since over 20 years ago. Since then, not enough seeds were distributed to our farmers.
“You will discover that three farmers were made to share a measure of the variety seed. Therefore, not more than 10 farmers got the seeds and that has really effected production of Wheat in the area,” he said.