Agro Dealers Sabotaging Jigawa’s 100,000 Hectares Wheat Production – Governor
By Ahmed Aminu, Dutse
Governor Umar Namadi has accused agro-dealers of sabotaging the irrigation season wheat production in Jigawa state.
He said that the agro dealers selected by the Federal Government to provide wheat seeds are yet to do so.
A total of 100,000 hectares has been earmarked for wheat cultivation in the state in the 2025 irrigation season.
The governor made the accusations during unscheduled visits to some seedling and inputs redeeming centers in Birninkudu and Kiyawa local government areas of the state.
He said while some of the dealers have not supplied the seeds, others who did were exploiting farmers by charging above the official price.
Namadi said that the attitude of the agro dealers was deliberately targeted at sabotaging the concrete arrangement made by the federal ministry of agriculture to start the planting of the wheat in good time in order to cultivate the targeted 100, 000 hecters.
“Some of the agro-dealers, in the first instance, are not allowing the farmers to redeem. They are not allowing people to redeem the alert sent to them. I came here to ascertain but there is nobody in this redeeming center.
“Therefore we are going to report them to the ministry. As long as they will not issued the inputs to the farmers in time, we are just going to waste our money without good result. They are not doing the right thing at the right time.
“This is something that we will not take as a government, we will report them to the right authorities so that something urgent is done,” he said.
The Governor, who warned that anybody caught sabotaging the project will be prosecuted, ordered the arrest of the Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in Kiyawa, Isyaku Katanga for increasing the cost of the seedlings by N2,000.
He directed the Kiyawa Divisional Police Officer to recover the monies illegally collected from the farmers.
Namadi pledged to ensure that the full package is given to all registered farmers as directed by the Federal Government.
Some of the farmers had complained of delay in the distribution of the inputs, warning that there is not much time left for planting, adding that there were also irregularities at the redeeming centres.
“We were registered and met all required formalities to access the inputs, but to pay and collect is the problem. They are inflating the price, even at that you have to know someone. To see them is the problem, and look at the time, we are really confused,” a farmer told the governor.
