The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says 13 states produced 36,943.8 metric tonnes of wheat in 2021.

The figure is contained in the “Wheat Production Survey in Nigeria, 2021”, and obtained from the NBS website on Monday in Abuja.

According to it, Kano State at 19.68 per cent, accounted for the highest wheat produced by producing 6,512.8 tonnes.

This was followed by Jigawa which produced 5,854.8 tonnes (17.69 per cent), Kebbi 4,422 tonnes, while Zamfara at 672 tonnes, accounted for the least (1.62 per cent).

“However, in terms of average yield per hectare, Plateau recorded the maximum yield (3.8 tonnes/hectare).

“This was followed by Gombe (3.7 tonnes/hectare), Kano and Jigawa states, with 2.8 tonnes per hectare each, while Kaduna has the least (2.7 tonnes/hectare).”

The report said that the survey was carried out in Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Plateau, Yobe, and Zamfara.

It covered the 2020/2021 farming season with wheat yield per hectare estimated through crop cutting experiment while total land area cultivated was estimated by satellite mapping.

It said that in determining the total land area cultivated, the NBS first built an Artificial Intelligence (AI) model which uses remote sensing satellite images to distinguish between wheat and non-wheat pixels.

This, it said, helps in predicting wheat acreage for different Local Government Areas (LGAs).

The NBS said that the objectives of carrying out the survey were to determine the yield per hectare of wheat, determine total production of wheat in Nigeria and determine total land under cultivation with wheat.

It would also help to estimate acreage and crop yield for wheat in 2020 to 2021 and validate the predicted results with ground collected data.

The survey was sponsored by the Flour Milling Association of Nigeria (FMAN), while Crop in Technology Solutions was contracted for the Satellite Mapping.

It added that representatives of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development (FMARD) as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) served as advisors and technical supporters of the study.

(NAN)