LAGOS: Local wheat production is rising and Nigeria will achieve the 68 per cent local production target by year end, the Executive Director, Lake Chad Research Institute, Dr. Gbenga Olabanji, has said.
He said wheat production in the North would increase the output from 45 per cent to 60 per cent.
He added that the 68 per cent output target set by the Federal Government would be achieved by the end of the year.
This will help the country to save N431bn from its wheat import bill.
The LCRI boss said: ”Farmers have adopted the improved variety and we have released two new varieties in December, Reyna 28 and Norma Boulaug with average yield of 5.5 to six tonnes per hectare.
“At present, we can say have attained about 45 per cent. But if we are to add all the products in all the Northern producing states, we will have close to 60 per cent, so the 68 per cent is still very much achievable.”
Olabanji added that Lake Chad had released an improved variety of seeds that could produce up to six tonnes per hectare of wheat while the area of production had also been increased to about 150, 000 hectare.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, had in 2013 said Nigeria would meet 68 per cent wheat needs by 2015.
“In two years, if we accelerate investment, we should be able to produce 2.2 million metric tonnes of wheat. This would meet 68 per cent of our domestic wheat requirements and save Nigeria N431bn in wheat imports annually,” the minister had said.
The Special Assistant to the Minister on Media and Strategy, Dr. Olukayode Oyeleye, however, said Nigeria had over the years witnessed some setbacks in local production of the commodity due to lack of planting materials, government policy changes and lack of incentives to stakeholders.
Oyeleye said: “The huge increase in consumption coupled with low productivity resulted in importation to fill the gap between demand and supply.
“Local consumption in the country has reached four million tonnes while production stood at 100,000 tons in 2012. To reverse this trend where more than N600billion in foreign exchange is spent on wheat importation, the Wheat Value Chain was put in place.’’
