Grace Nwafor
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, on Thursday, began the distribution of subsidised inputs to not less than 6,000 wheat farmers in Kano State.
The minister, who was 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 disclosed that the distribution of the input is under the Federal Government’s special programme on wheat production, which 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.
The farmers commended the effort of the federal government in subsiding the input adding that some of them were compelled to reduce the number of hectares they cultivate due to the economic situation of the country.