The Federal Government on Sunday announced that it had entered into partnership with Crown Flour Mills to reduce the importation of wheat into Nigeria.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, expressed delight in the interest shown by Crown Flour Mill to partner the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to expand the production capacity of wheat in Nigeria. Nanono said the initiative would reduce wheat importation, enhance food security and nutrition, conserve scarce foreign exchange and create jobs. According to him, the FMARD had put in place deliberate measures to ensure increase in wheat production. He said such measures included the provision of quality seeds and distribution of agricultural inputs to Nigerian farmers, adding that the ministry would support the flour firm in its development efforts. A statement issued by the FMARD in Abuja stated that Nanono disclosed this while playing host to a delegation from Crown Flour Mills, led by the firm’s Corporate Affairs Manager, Damilola Adeniyi. The minister stated that with the intervention by the firm and other interventions from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Flour Milling Association of Nigeria, Transformation for Africa Agricultural Technologies and the Wheat Compact Project, Nigeria would experience sufficiency in the local production of wheat.