From Mustapha Adamu, Kano
Africa Development Bank (AfDB) on Monday said the african countries are bearing the brunt of Russia/Ukraine war in terms of wheat and fertilizer importation.
AfDB also said Africa was spending about $20 billion annually on importation of wheat and that which made it the worst hit with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
The Head, of Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), Dr. Solomon Gizaw disclosed this during a Train the Trainee, ToT it organized on Wheat seed production in Nigeria.
Dr. Gizaw said the african countries were paying the supreme price for Ukraine- Russia crisis which has caused in disruption of supply and high cost of wheat in the region.
He said Nigeria has all it takes to produce, feed itself and the rest of African countries.
According to him, “the fight between Russia and Ukraine impacted the whole of Africa. You can imagine, two countries fighting elsewhere in Europe but the fight has caused a lot of supply disruption because we African are the major importer of wheat across the continent. Which means we don’t have food security as our food security is in the hands of the others.
“Africa around this time annually spend nearly $20 billion to import wheat from other part of the world. They import fertilizer and wheat from Ukraine and Russia and as a result the war between the duo has disrupted the supply of wheat and also fertilizer. This resulted in the African countries wheat prices and supply. It has a lot problems and challenges to provide food, bread for the poor and other food because of high price of fertilizer. Africa is hard-hit as a result of these two countries war.
“We in Africa, we have the technology, land, water and the people. If we bring together and work together, Nigeria can feed itself and rest of Africa countries.
“The mechanism we put in place is a flagship program with the African Development Bank. And in Africa today, we have several high yielding wheat varieties that are giving high yield of 6 to 7 tonnes per hectares. But today in nigeria, the wheat production is not exceeding 2 to 3 per hectare. You can imagine. With one farmland, we can increase the productivity by two to three folds. So the African Development Bank is working with the Nigerian government to expand wheat. And the government has committed to take this varieties.
“And if you produce the right quantity of seeds in Nigeria next year, all Nigerian wheat farmers can grow wheat and if you continue with this, in the next three, four or five years nigeria can completely reverse wheat importation which is now about 95 per cent. It can be reversed and Nigeria can be self sufficient. And our forecast in the potentials of Nigeria shows Nigeria can produce, feed itself and the rest of Africa,” Dr. Gizaw said.
Earlier, TAAT programme coordinator, Dr. Chrys Akem lamented over the backwardness of Nigeria in an effort towards wheat production revolution in the country.
