Former Executive Director of Lake Chad Research Institute, Maiduguri, Dr. Oluwasina Olabanji has said Nigeria spends over $4.2 billion on importation of wheat from the United States. Dr. Olabanji stated this on Monday during a farm work on 30,000 hectares wheat and Barley cultivation field situated at Taloka village in Goronyo Local government area of Sokoto State. He noted that Nigeria produces 625, 000 metric tons of wheat as against its annual requirement of 4.7 million metric tons.
He lamented that despite being blessed with massive arable land suitable for the production of varieties of wheat including barley, which is usually described as golden wheat, Nigeria was still spending huge sums on foreign exchange to import wheat.
He explained that to address the situation, the Lake Chad Institute in Maiduguri, have developed improved varieties that could yield between five to six tonnes per hectare.
"We are also expanding the wheat production to non-traditional areas such as Kogi, Niger, Nasarawa and Kwara states through Lake Chad Institute and a project called Technology for Africa Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) funded by Africa Development Bank (ADB)."
According to Dailytrust, the large-scale wheat farm which debuted as a pilot project in the state was initiated by a private agro-firm, Foladapo Global Enterprise and Heritage bank. The pilot project was done to demonstrate quality seeds of both wheat and barley that can be grown in the state.
While allaying the fears of farmers, especially in the northwest, he said that barley wheat was used for the production of food items that are permitted by Islam adding that claims that it was use for the production of alchohol was wrong.
