Dr John Aderibigbe, a former technical consultant to the Wheat Farmer Association of Nigeria during President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and currently, Chairman of the National Agricultural Commodity Projects (NACP), spoke to Weekend Trust at the last WECA wheat summit in Abuja, where he discussed the challenges and opportunities in wheat production in Nigeria, and how the country can achieve self-sufficiency in this critical crop.
Since 2018, when you worked as a consultant for the Wheat Farmers Association, you have been involved in the wheat industry. You are currently the NACP’s national chairperson. Will wheat be produced as part of this project?
Yes. For this dry season, because of the peculiarity of food inflation in the country and the high cost of food items, we are doing 150,000 hectares of wheat production in Nigeria, involving 13 states: Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Yobe, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Taraba, Plateau, Niger, Katsina and Borno.
What measures are you taking to guarantee the full potentials of the farmers who are expected to be involved in this project?
Our intentions are very clear; we swung into action from 2023 when we noticed that this food supply challenge will continue for a long while. We also understand the peculiarity of wheat because it’s both a technical and political crop, as the word may imply. We started doing onboarding of farmers since 2023 where we went to the grassroots, particularly wheat producing states. There are some states we cannot play with when it comes to wheat production, so we started onboarding farmers in such places to make sure that when it’s time for us to go into the production, identifying the real farmers will not be a problem. And this was easy f or us to do because we have been in the industry, for some time now, in the areas of management and implementation of wheat production in the country.
How do you feel about the level of domestic production and demand in the country?
Nigeria, on the average, consumes up to six million metric tons of wheat annually. We, however, produce abysmally (around some of our consultants in the wheat value chain. We are also working with some local associations, like the Wheat Farmer Association of Nigeria and the Wheat Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria.
What level of mechanisation are you bringing on board if you’re working on 150,000 hectares?
We all know how important mechanisation is in every farming activity to avoid things like post-harvest issues, losses and what have you. We are writing state ministries of agriculture in order to reduce the cost of production for these farmers. We are talking with them to support our farmers with extension services, land preparation, harrowing and ploughing and so on. And even at the point of harvest, we’ve been in talks with flour milling associations to help us with combined harvesters so that when it’s time for aggregation, the work will be easy for us to do.
Have you discussed this with the government, and if so, what’s the response?
Like I tell everyone who cares to listen, food should not be brought into politics. Food and politics don’t go together. If you want to have a troubled economy, just tamper with the food system. Once households can no longer get basic meal, then it becomes a problem. The government of the day may not give them good roads or water but when food becomes an issue, like what we have in Nigeria currently, then it becomes something else.
As much as I would want to encourage the private sector to come into production, they need the support of the government of the day. Don’t forget, I said, wheat is a political crop; so many means can be used to frustrate our efforts. So, if you don’t have the support of the state government, the federal government, or any other government, you’ll be frustrated. Government needs to hear the cry of the Nigerian farmers.