In Kano State, wheat harvesting period has been targeted towards the middle of March 2022, but recent investigations revealed that the price of wheat in the market has been going up by the day and the grain is also becoming scarce in most of the markets.
According to the state chairman of Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria (WFAN), Alhaji Shehu Musa, the increase in the price being presently experienced is attributed to the feud between Russia and Ukraine. According to him, wheat merchants are all out to mop-up the available grains in the market and as such the price of wheat keeps rising.
He explained that though wheat harvesting has not commenced yet, it is clear that increase in wheat price is inevitable.
Similarly, a wheat grain dealer at Dawanau International Grain Market, Malam Usman Dauda, revealed that recently the grain is becoming scarce in the market as its demand has increased seriously.
According to him, a 100kg bag of wheat is now selling between N37, 400 and N39, 000. He also revealed that many wheat users engage in panic buying because they heard that countries producing wheat are in conflict and that will affect the nation’s wheat importation and by extension products made from wheat.
It was also gathered that Kano State, being one of the major wheat producing states in Nigeria, did not cultivate wheat as it used to due to Tiga dam closure which forced many wheat farmers away from their farm lands.
It was equally revealed that the dam closure will affect the state’s annual wheat production as well as the farmers per capita income.
A wheat farmer, Malam Jamilu Garun Babba, revealed that even though locally produced wheat is more qualitative than the imported one, wheat will definitely be scarce this year.
