FG Faults Labelling of Nigeria’s Wheat as Poison
The Federal Government has faulted the purported labelling of Nigeria’s wheat as poisonous because it contains gluten.
The Director, Federal Department of Agriculture of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), Hajiya Karima Babangida, said it was a wrong notion by some western countries.
Babangida made this known during a Capacity Building for Wheat Farmers on Good Agricultural Practices for Wheat Storage held in Kano recently
Represented by the National Wheat Value Chain Desk Officer, Naphtali D. Telta, the Director noted that gluten was never a poisonous content in wheat.
She said “If wheat was poisonous, it would have finished the European race, it would have finished the Arab race, it would have also finished the Israeli race because their food depends on wheat.”
“One of the challenges of wheat production in Nigeria is politically centered around the crop by some western countries. Some western countries are trying all they can to ensure that Nigeria does not become self-sufficient in wheat production.”
Babangida further explained that it could be true that some people are allergic to wheat, but that doesn’t mean that it was poisonous.
On his part, the National President of the Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Salim Saleh Muhammad, said that the challenges of wheat farming in the country were failure of the government to fund the farmers.
Muhammad thereafter called on the federal government to include the association in all its different intervention programs for the agriculture sector in the country.
