…To add 750, 000MTs via rain-fed cultivation, reduce annual
import by 60%
In a statement sent and endorsed by Ozena Utulu, Acting.
Group Head, Corporate Communications in the bank saying The partnership is
basically to consummate Wheat Seed Multiplication Project in Jos as part of the
CBN’s Brown Revolution Initiative, the apex bank’s wheat value chain
intervention to address the challenges in Wheat value chain, thereby increasing
the domestic production of wheat and closing the wide supply gap in Nigeria
agricultural space.
The novel initiative that will boost wheat production
annually is being process via rain-fed cultivation, as this approach is
actually the first ever wheat programme that it would be planted in wet season.
Meanwhile, as part of the pilot phase of the initiative,
Heritage Bank financed the first ever large scale rain-fed wheat production in
Nigeria.
Speaking at the flag-off ceremony for the Brown Revolution
Initiative, which was the pilot project and also declared the 2021 dry season
farming open in Jos yesterday, the Deputy Governor, CBN, Edward Adamu stated
that the short-term benefit is the addition of about 2, 000 metric tonnes (MT)
of high yield seed variety to the national wheat seed stock which is 20, 000MT
currently.
According to him, this effort has the potential to add about
750, 000MT of wheat annually through rain-fed cultivation.
He noted that estimated that only one per cent or 63,000MT
of wheat, out of the five to six million metric tons of wheat consumed annually
was produced locally, whilst with the Brown Revolution and in partnership with
Heritage Bank and others, CBN seeks to eliminate dependence on imported wheat
by 60%.
The MD/CEO of Heritage Bank; Ifie Sekibo who frowned at that
the country’s increased wheat importation bills affirmed that this strategic
partnership would help reverse the trends and upscale domestic production of
wheat to close the wide supply gap in the agricultural space.
As part of the bank’s efforts to support the high yield seed
variety to national wheat seed stock, Sekibo represented by the Head
Agricbusiness and Export, Ugonwa Ikegwuonu explained that the bank set out to
cultivate a total of 1, 000 hectares of farm land at the end of the year with
at least producing about 5tonnes of wheat seeds per hectare in terms of yield.
“We set out to cultivate a total of 1,000 hectares of farm
land but at the end of the day because of time constraints & other challenges,
we have been able to cultivate 357 hectares. The crops according to the project
manager are doing very well & in few weeks they will be ripe for harvest,
in fact part of the farm is already ripe for harvest. So we set out with this
partnership with two anchors which we call service providers,” he further
explained.
Speaking during his welcome address, the Governor of Plateau
State, Simon Lalong affirmed that Nigeria was on the path of Agricultural food
sufficiency with the ‘Brown Revolution’ the rain-fed wheat would help curtail
the $2billion spent on importation of wheat.
He further noted that the target of his administration was
to attain zero-importation of wheat, attain wheat sufficiency in the economy
and commence exportation to raise foreign reserve.
President of Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria, Salim
Muhammad stated that they have good understanding with Heritage Bank for its
proactive approach to the objective of the rain-fed wheat production in
Agriculture value chain.
He assured, “I assure you that at the end of this programme,
by next season, it will be a different scenario/story because we are now doing
on a very small scale but I’m sure by next season, the real revolution will
start off and it will be seen all over Nigeria. Because, currently we are
producing wheat in 16 wheat producing states. By the coming of this wheat dry
season, seeds available and practicable; we are going to expand our scope to
cover other areas that can produce wheat during the dry season.
I’m not saying that we are going to cover the whole 36
states of the Country, but I assure you, by next season we will be thinking of
about 20 to 27 states that we have.”
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