The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, on Thursday, commenced the distribution of subsidised inputs to no fewer than 6,000 wheat farmers in Kano State.
The minister, represented by the State Coordinator, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Isa Hotoro, made the disclosure at the Aggregation Centre at Alkamawa village in the Bunkure Local Government Area of the state.
He said the distribution of the input, which is under the Federal Government’s special programme on wheat production, is expected to boost wheat production as the government gave the inputs at a 75 per cent subsidy.
“The Federal Government gave the inputs a 75 per cent subsidy while the farmers will pay the balance of 25 per cent.
“Each farmer will collect three bags of fertilizer and one bag of 50kg wheat seeds at the cost of N111,000, which represents 25 per cent of the total package,” he said.
According to the minister, the farmers are expected to cultivate 3,000 hectares of farmlands in 12 special clusters at Alkamawa in Bunkure, Ajingi and Gaya LGAs.
“Each farmer is expected to cultivate 0.5 hectares in the 12 special clusters in Alkamawa, Ajingi and Gaya Local Government Areas of the state,” he added.
In separate interviews with our correspondent, some of the farmers appreciated the Federal Government for the gesture as, according to them, the high cost of the inputs and transportation had compelled most of the farmers in the areas to reduce the number of hectares they used to cultivate.
One of the farmers, Yakubu Ibrahim, said he used to cultivate five hectares but had reduced it to two hectares due to the current economic crisis in the country.
They, however, urged the government to ensure timely distribution of the inputs to enable farmers to prepare early enough.
