By Chinyere Anyanwu
The Federal Government and its agencies, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), have persistently made achieving self-sufficiency in food production one of the focal areas of policies delivered over the past one decade.
One segment which has been identified as critical for the development of the country’s agriculture value chain is the wheat production segment. It has been recognised as key to accelerating the achievement of national food security, production self-sufficiency drive, and the broadening of the state revenue channels. This is because the segment keeps rising in relevance owing to a huge household pivot to consuming non-traditional, wheat derivative foods such as bread, semolina, pasta and pastries.
The goal of transforming the nation into a food basket would not be achieved without concerted stakeholder efforts. These efforts are required to bridge the food supply gaps by initiating and funding suitable food development programmes and delivering apt engagement across the food value chain to support the population and relieve the state.
This informs the reason Crown Flour Mill Limited (CFM), the wheat milling firm and a subsidiary of Olam Nigeria, is investing in a development initiative in local wheat production targeted at addressing the factors that have impeded the growth of wheat farming in the country. The initiative tagged, “Seeds for the Future” is being implemented in partnership with the Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI), and is structured to utilise the expansive capacities of local researchers and the network of smallholder women farmers in cooperative unions to achieve its objectives.
Through the collaborative framework, CFM and LCRI have established a wheat trial project in Hadejia, Jigawa State, Northwest Nigeria. The primary aim of the research project is to release high throughput and adaptable seed varieties for smallholder farmers. The seed genotypes being used in the research work were introduced from the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) alongside best bet national checks. Sowing began on November 17, 2021.
CFM is taking practical, workable steps to adopt an effective management system that utilises the valuable network of community-based farmers’ associations to improve local production. Helping the country scale up the production of adaptable (best bet) seed varieties that suit local topography, is critical for the growth of local cultivation. An estimated 10 female smallholder wheat farmer cooperative unions comprising at least 10 women each would be engaged in a seed trial, multiplication and commercialisation cycle. The testing for the best bet seed varieties that suit local climatic conditions has begun. Each women’s cooperative union will be provided with one tonne of the certified seeds to cultivate. The seed would further be multiplied along a well-guided cycle to ensure steady multiplication across the village enterprises or female associations.
It is estimated that the Seeds for the Future project will engage at least 10,000 farmers per year as seed multiplicators who will cultivate about 100,000 ha of land with the high-yielding seed varieties by 2030. The project is estimated to generate about 200,000 tonnes of seeds for multiplication and commercialisation which, according to Ashish Pande, Managing Director, CFM, will generate revenue and returns which will directly impact the lives of the farmers and the cooperatives engaged in the project.