By Emmanuel Nduka
As part of efforts to meet the high demand of wheat, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has earmarked N41billion, which will be disbursed by Heritage Bank Plc to farmers across states to enable them expand wheat production.
According to the CBN, the fund is to consummate the expansion of the Wheat Seed Multiplication Project, as part of its Brown Revolution Initiative, an intervention programme to flag-off and support the commencement of dry season wheat farming across States in Nigeria.
Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele while speaking on the initiative, disclosed that the CBN is also looking to address the challenges in Wheat value chain, thereby increasing the domestic production of wheat and closing the wide supply gap inherited in Nigeria agricultural space.
He said the CBN was inspired by the successes in the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), thus, it decided to extend the gains recorded in rice and maize value chains to wheat production.
The programme according to Emefiele, would benefit over 150,000 farmers, and would be implemented in 15 states on about 180,000 hectares of land.
