Jigawa State Governor Umar Namadi has declared that local wheat farmers will benefit from a large subsidy program, with the state government covering 75% of agricultural input expenses.<\/p>\n
According to the governor, the goal of this project is to increase wheat output and help Nigeria achieve food self-sufficiency.<\/p>\n
In an exclusive interview after the West and Central Africa Development Network Wheat second regional summit in Abuja, which ended on Thursday, Namadi emphasized the state’s commitment to growing wheat cultivation.<\/p>\n
He stated, \u201cYou know that through the collaboration between the African Development Bank and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture 120,000 hectares were allocated to Nigeria and out of that, 40,000 hectares were allocated to Jigawa State. So, I will take up the challenge of the 40,000 hectares.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that more involvement with the Flour Milling Association of Nigeria resulted in the cultivation of another 5,000 hectares, while those who did not benefit from the subsidy programme produced 10 hectares, bringing the total wheat agricultural area in the state to 55,000 hectares.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd in addition, we also had another engagement with the Flour Milling Association of Nigeria and we have done another engagement of 5,000 hectares. That will make us 45,000 here. And also, our farmers, those who are not able to get themselves into this programme, they cultivated about 10,000 hectares,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
The governor noted that the subsidy significantly alleviates financial burdens on farmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the support from the federal government, which gave us 50 per cent subsidy, we decided to help our farmers further by paying 75 per cent of the remaining 50 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsequently, farmers are only required to contribute 25 per cent towards the costs of inputs, a measure that has motivated more individuals to engage in wheat production. The results and outcomes have been very good,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Namadi announced hopes to increase output to 100,000 hectares, saying, “We are aiming at 100,000 hectares this year, and we hope that we will be able to meet that target.”<\/p>\n
He also stated that the state government intends to quadruple its collaboration with the Flour Milling Association in order to enhance the amount of land set aside for wheat cultivation.<\/p>\n
In addition to subsidizing inputs, the governor emphasized continued efforts to increase seed availability.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ministry of Agriculture has brought in seed from Mexico, and we are also focusing on local seed production,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
The governor added that by involving local youth in seed production, the state aims to foster a lucrative agricultural sector, saying, \u201cSeed production is very lucrative because you sell it at a premium price.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jigawa State Governor Umar Namadi has declared that local wheat farmers will benefit from a large subsidy program, with the state government covering 75% of agricultural input expenses. According to the governor, the goal of this project is to increase wheat output and help Nigeria achieve food self-sufficiency. In an exclusive interview after the West […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":50878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50879,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50875\/revisions\/50879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}