Farmers in Kano state have laid down strategies that will improve production of wheat in high quality and quantity.
Farmers who celebrated the wheat Green Field Day in Kano say they are working closely with the Flour Mills Association of Nigeria for the desired gold to be achieved.
It is the wheat farming season in Kano. The season started in November 2022 and already wheat Farms are greener.
A lot of wheat farmers are expectant and look forward to a bumper harvest in a few months.
Wheat is temperate crop that grows largely in the Northern states taking about 100 and 120 days to mature.
Wheat derivative meals are very popular in Nigeria. Food staples such as semolina, bread, noodles and pasta, which are produced from wheat flour, form a regular part of meals in most urban and rural households.
The importance of wheat foods to the national population therefore underscores the need to develop the domestic wheat value chain which, currently is not delivering enough to meet the growing demand for wheat derivatives.
As it stands, increasing the total yield per hectare of national farmlands is critical to reaching food sufficiency levels that meet the needs of the over 200 million Nigerians.
While ecological conditions cannot be modified to generate the desired crop yields per hectare of land, the use of certified seeds of improved varieties and adoption of modern farming techniques by farmers are effective production improvement levers that can be utilized to enrich the domestic food landscape.
Farmers are therefore keen to produce them in high quantity and quality to reduce Imports.
Flour Miller’s Association of Nigeria is supporting their cause with improved technology and seeds.
Wheat farmers Greenfield day is already celebrated with officials of flour Mills Association of Nigeria among other key stakeholders in the agricultural sector in attendance.
Coordinator of the Greenfield day says they are already in seven states and have demonstration plots in another six states.
He noted that this has been done in four states before Kano.
“This is the fifth state and we are going to have the grand Brown Field Day in Jigawa in March, so that people will see another aspect of the crop”.
The wheat farmers in Kadawa are hopeful that with the support given to them they will do even more in the coming years.