The Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria has painted a devastating picture of how COVID-19 and uninspiring government policy were destroying wheat production in Nigeria.
Alhaji Salim Mohammed, the national president of the Wheat Farmers Association in an extensive webinar conversation with Agriculture Journalists recently expressed anger and dismay towards government's attitude to wheat production and what it posits for the future.
The CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) is a very laudable programme created by President Muhammadu Buhari, but the wheat farmers' leader feels the string attached to the programme is a huge burden on the association and the farmers.
Assuming I received a loan of N250,000, I put it into farming and I get a profit of N20,000 or N30,000 or a maximum of N40,000 out of that production circle, how do you expect me as a farmer, to pay back that loan within the shortest possible time I have.
So there has to be good synergy between the operators at the centre and the farmers at the lower level so that we can have a round table meeting to understand what the major issues are and challenges facing agricultural production in the country," Salim said.
