ECOBasic-Seed, a Kaduna-based seedling company, has urged Nigerian farmers to embrace the use of hybrid seeds as foundation grains to boost food production and accelerate the country’s drive towards good nutrition and food security.
The Managing Director of the firm, Brighton Karume, who made the call during a demonstration exercise on ‘hybrid seeds’ at Jaji, lamented that the country still has a long way to go because most Nigerian farmers still depend on the use of conventional seeds, which he described as counter-productive, slow, and time-wasting.
Karume decried poor awareness, lack of access to farm implements, storage facilities, and modern ways of cultivating land for mass food production of edible food, while highlighting the benefits of hybrid seeds, including pest tolerance, higher yielding, uniformity in color, and maturity, among others.
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He disclosed the readiness of the firm to bridge the foundation seed gaps by providing sustainable solutions to tackle challenges facing farmers through productive collaboration with research institutes to deliver viable planting materials with good genetic makeup.
Also speaking was Prof. Rabiu Adamu, an agriculture expert and lecturer from the Institute of Agric Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, who disclosed that more than 80 percent of Nigerian farmers were on conventional seeds, describing the development as sad and worrisome.
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“We have enumerated the gains and advantages of using hybrids for maize, rice, cowpea, and other edible food production. The time is now to ensure our subsistent and commercial farmers graduate from using open pollination varieties to hybrids, which will guarantee our future and maintain our first place as the biggest agro-economy nation in Africa,” Prof. Adamu said.
On his own, the Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Kaduna State House of Assembly, Abdullahi Bello, assured farmers of his readiness to enact laws that would ensure the availability of arable and secured land for farm use.
