Flour Millers Target 4,300 Farmers For Input Loans

The Flour Millers Association of Nigeria (FMAN) has expanded its outgrower programme with input loans to cover 4,300 farmers across 3,900 hectares in seven states.

The National Programme Manager of FMAN Wheat Development Programme, Dr. Aliyu Samaila revealed this during the Wheat Farmers Green Field Day in Sokoto on Tuesday.

According to the Central Bank Of Nigeria $2 billion is being spent on the importation of wheat from other countries annually.

Dr. Sama’ila said this need to be stopped hence the expansion of their outgrower promme to cover more farmers across the country.

“Our number one role is to provide a market for wheat farmers in Nigeria; we are expanding our procurement as an industry across the wheat producing states through additional aggregation staff and warehouse capacity. Specifically, we are establishing procurement centers across 13 Northern States to offtake all wheat grain from up to 50,000 farmers.

“These states include Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Bauchi, Adamawa, Gombe, Plateau, Taraba, Zamfara, and Yobe.

“To sustainably expand wheat production in the country, we must increase farmer yields, to make wheat competitive with rice and other dry season crops.

“We are there expanding our seed production with 6 certified seed companies, including both dry and wet season seed production, to produce sufficient seeds for 10,000 hectares next season,” he said

The programme manager also said that they would provide grants to the National Agricultural Seeds Council to expand their capabilities to test seed quality, certify seed production and train farmers to differentiate high-quality seed from others in the market.

He, however, assured the farmers of timely payment of their money after the off-taking.

The Secretary of FMAN, Sokoto state branch, Yusuf Bello while thanking the association for its support to their farmers, lamented that the current hike in the prices of fuel and scarcity of Naira was affecting wheat production in the state.

He, however, called on the authorities concerned to do something about the situation in earnest.