NAN
The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in Hadejia on Wednesday appealed to the Federal Government to provide markets that will accelerate sale of wheat at a profit in Jigawa.
The Chairman of Hadejia Chapter, Alhaji Usman Mohammed, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Hadejia.
He said that lack of markets for wheat had caused farmers focus more on rice cultivation than wheat which according to him is often sold at a loss.
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“ Lack of demand for wheat in commercial quantity has forced many wheat farmers to shift to rice cultivation.
“ Hadejia zone has the potential for producing over one million bags of wheat annually.
“ Unfortunately, some of our members have a large stock of the commodity in their reserve because nobody wants to buy at a reasonable price.
“ Initially, the state government introduced a company to us, which was buying a bag at between N18,000 and N19,000. We have not heard from them anymore.
“ Yesterday, my friend had to sell 10 bags at N13,000 each. He sold at a loss because getting a buyer is a difficult task”, the chairman said.
Mohammed commended the Federal Government for various intervention programmes in agriculture, especially in rice farming.
He, however, appealed to the government to devise a means of ensuring that only genuine farmers benefit from all its agricultural programmes.