Crisis may hit the bakery sector soon as local wheat production fell by 89.4 per cent, raising concerns by bakery operators over the rising cost of production.
According to data from the latest report of Wheat Production Survey in Nigeria 2021, obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics, wheat production in Nigeria crashed by 89.44 per cent, dropping from about 350,000 metric tonnes annually to as low as 36,943.8MT.
The report also revealed that the 36,943.8MT was produced in 13 states.
In November 2021, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development its report on Recommended Strategies to Improve Wheat Value Chain in Nigeria, presented at the 2021 Wheat Stakeholders Workshop,disclosed that the national production of wheat was around 350,000MT since 2017
But the NBS in its Wheat Production Survey in Nigeria 2021, seen in Abuja on Sunday, put the amount of wheat produced in 13 states across the country at 36,943.8MT.
Experts have argued that the rise in the cost of bread and pastries, triggered by the hike in flour price, was due to the low domestic production and high imports of wheat, a major raw material for flour used in baking.
The NBS, however, stated that wheat farming was experiencing renewed interest from policymakers who saw Nigeria’s potential to be self-sufficient in wheat production.
“But as vital as wheat is, we cannot say with certainty the actual quantity of wheat produced in the country as conflicting figures were being published from different sources,” the bureau stated.
It added, “There has been no recent survey or study to estimate the wheat production in Nigeria. The last official estimate of the wheat acreage is 60,000 hectares and dates back to 2008.
“Much has changed since then, and this study provided an overview of the current wheat production in Nigeria. The wheat production survey was conducted across 13 states in Nigeria covering 2020/2021 farming season by the NBS.”
The bureau analyzed wheat production in 13 northern states and concluded that the crop was cultivated in an area of about 11,820 hectares with production of 36,943.8MT of grain across the identified states.
It outlined the states to include Kano, Jigawa, Kebbi, Bauchi, Kaduna, Gombe, Yobe, Katsina, Plateau, Sokoto, Zamfara, Borno and Adamawa.
It said the maximum area under wheat cultivation was in Kano (19.68 per cent), followed by Jigawa (17.69 per cent), while Zamfara accounted for the least (1.62 per cent).
Similarly, state wise comparison of wheat production for 2021 showed that Kano was the major producer of wheat, with a production of 6,512.8MT; followed by Jigawa, 5,854.8MT; Kebbi, 4,422MT; while Zamfara ranked last with 672MT.
However, in terms of average yield per hectare, the major wheat-growing states was low compared to other states, as Plateau State recorded the maximum yield of 3.8 tonnes/hectare.
It was followed by Gombe (3.7 tonnes/hectare), while Kaduna had the least (2.7 tonnes/hectare), followed by Kano and Jigawa states with 2.8 tonnes per hectare each.
