The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has distributed agricultural inputs to 6,000 wheat farmers in Kano State as part of the federal government’s efforts to boost food production in the country.

Under the intervention, each farmer, especially the smallholder farmer, was given three bags of fertilisers and one 50-kilogramme bag of wheat seeds across 12 special cluster centres in the state.

The distribution was launched at Alkamawa in the Bunkure Local Government Area of the state on Thursday.

It was launched by the state coordinator, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in the state, Isa Isiyaku.

He said it was a special programme to capture smallholder farmers, medium- and large-scale farmers in wheat production.

Mr Isiyaku said the programme was aimed at boosting the wheat farmers’s productivity and the nation’s “food basket.”

He said the programme covered 3,000 hectares in the 12 special clusters in Alkamawa in the area including in Ajingi, Gaya and Garko LGAs.

Mr Isiyaku said the inputs were given to the farmers at 75 per cent subsidy by the federal government, while the farmers would pay 25 per cent of the cost of the inputs being N111,000.

In his remarks at the occasion, the chairman of the Gaya Emirate Farmers Association, Yakubu Ibrahim, commended the federal government for the intervention, which he said would boost wheat production in the state.

“Before the coming of this support, many of our farmers had reduced production due to the high prices of fuel and fertiliser. But with this intervention, they would resume their normal farming activities,” Mr Ibrahim said.

(NAN)