Nigeria is set to boost local output of wheat and cut dependence on imports. The country has inked a partnership deal with food company Olam International Ltd. to develop seed varieties of the grain that are suitable for its climate.
Ashish Pande, the country head for Olam Agri Nigeria confirmed the report and said the Olam unit Crown Flour Mill Ltd., has produced so-called nucleus seeds suitable for the West African nation’s topography and climate.
Wheat imports
Nigeria has been ranked as Africa’s largest buyer of wheat. Africa’s most populous country placed restrictions on wheat imports before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted supply. But it harvested less than one percent of the 4.7 million tons of the grain it consumed in 2021, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
The surge in the price of the cereal crop helped fuel the inflation rate for food, which rose to 22 percent in July from a year earlier. Domestic wheat production has been hampered by lack of appropriate seed varieties that can be grown in local weather conditions, high fertilizer costs and the lack of irrigation facilities.
“The new seeds gives some assurance that the investment of Olam will accelerate production in Nigeria across the wheat-farming belt,” Kachalla Mala, the principal research officer at Lake Chad Research Institute, said.
