The Kaduna State chapter of the Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria has commended the Federal Government for subsidising inputs for dry season wheat farming by 50 per cent.
This was as a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Osun State, Mr Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, commended President Bola Tinubu for the initiative, saying it would assist farmers to increase production, thereby boosting food availability at affordable prices for Nigerians.
The wheat farmers in Zaria, Kaduna State, on Sunday, while expressing excitement over the initiative, pledged to make the best of the opportunity.
They got the subsidised input under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro Pocket initiative.
For dry-season wheat farming, a beneficiary is required to deposit N180,500, representing 50 per cent of the total cost of the inputs to qualify for the subsidy.
The chairman of the farmers’ association, Alhaji Bashir Tanko, told the News Agency of Nigeria that many beneficiaries had received alerts for the redemption of the inputs at designated areas in Kaduna State.
He noted, however, that a larger number of wheat farmers could not afford the mandatory N180,500 (50 per cent) deposit to qualify for the subsidy.
“Most members already planted wheat in anticipation of the government’s intervention to augment their personnel efforts. Most of them had exhausted a significant amount of their resources.
“Since they could not benefit from the subsidy, they would continue to use their personal resources,’’ Tanko said.
He dismissed fears that the inputs could end up in the hands of non-wheat farmers because NAGS-AP had relegated the association.
“We assume the relegation of the association was based on the poor recovery of money earlier given to wheat farmers through the association under the Anchor Borrowers Programme,’’ Tanko said.
He assured the government that the association would not relent in efforts to recover the total amount given to wheat farmers.
He also urged the Federal Government to give the association a second chance and a benefit of the doubt, stressing that it would not disappoint its benefactor.
On his part, Oyintiloye, who spoke in Osogbo, the Osun State capital on Sunday, recalled that the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, had on November 25 said the Federal Government would support 250,000 wheat farmers with a 50 per cent input subsidy to cultivate about 250,000 hectares during the dry season.
The ex-lawmaker, who was part of the defunct APC Presidential Campaign Council, noted that the country’s current food inflation, going by the data made available by the National Bureau of Statistics stood at 31.5 per cent.
He said, “We need to commend President Tinubu for this 50 per cent subsidy on farm inputs. This will go a long way to boost food security, attract private sector investment, reduce post-harvest losses, as well as add value to local agricultural produce in the country.
“With the various agricultural interventions by the President, there would be positive changes in the prices of food and there would be surpluses in the coming days.”
Oyintiloye said the President’s desire for food security and his quick intervention on fertilizer, improved seeds, agricultural mechanisation and grants in both the short and long run would yield desirable results to ensure food production around the year.
