Nigeria’s central bank governor has chipped that Nigeria’s wheat production is expected to rise as 100,000 hectares of wheat was planted in the 2021 dry season.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele disclosed this at the unveiling of the CBN rice pyramids by President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday.
He also added that Nigeria’s rice production increased 2.4 metric tons per hectare in 2015 to about 5 metric tons per hectare in 2021.
Emefiele stated that “CBN in collaboration with the Wheat Farmers’ Association had concluded the first major wet season wheat farming in Plateau State and planted over 100,000 hectares of wheat across 15 States in the 2021 dry season.”
President Buhari at the event urged agricultural commodity associations that are yet to participate in the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme to emulate the Rice Farmers’ Association of Nigeria to key into the administration’s drive for food self-sufficiency.
The President also commended the rebirth of the Nigerian Commodity Exchange, noting that farmers would be ready for the off-take of their produce, thereby resolving the current logistical challenge of moving their produce from farm to markets.
It was reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stated that its intervention in the Nigerian agricultural sector has led to the massive reduction in imported rice from Thailand from 2014 when Thailand exported 1.3 million metric tons of rice to Nigeria to just 58,000 metric tons at the end of 2021.
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