From Sola Ojo, Kaduna

A Kaduna-based seedlings firm has called on farmers to adopt hybrid seeds as foundation grains because it would accelerate the Country’s drive towards food sufficiency status.

Managing Director, EcoBasicSeed firm, Brighton Karume who made the call further noted that most Nigerian farmers were into open-pollinated varieties (OPV) which he described as a “counterproductive”, slow, and time-wasting method, adding that the country still had a long way to go if it relied on conventional seeds for production of edible food for her citizens.

The Head of the Seed company established with support from the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation said Nigeria is the greatest cultivator of farmlands which he estimated at seven to eight hectares needed to cross over to hybrid seeds of maize, rice, and cowpea in commercial quantities

He listed the benefits of hybrids to include; pest tolerance, higher yielding, uniformity in colour, and maturity among others.

The agriculture expert decried poor awareness, lack of access to farm implements, storage facilities, and modern ways of cultivating the land for mass food production as some banes militating against the country’s quest for achieving self-sufficiency in food.

He reiterated the resolve of the firm to bridge the foundation seed gaps by providing sustainable solutions to challenges encountered by farmers through productive collaboration with research institutes to deliver genetic potential.

In his submission at the demonstration site Jaji, Prof. Rabiu Adamu from the Institute of Agric Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria said more than 80 percent of Nigerian farmers were on conventional seeds, describing the development as sad and worrisome.

“We have less than 20 percent of farmers using hybrid seed which is a very low number that can take us nowhere close to achieving our objective of producing food to match our ever-rising population as the largest in Africa.

“We have today enumerated to the audience here 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 the open pollination varieties to hybrids which will guarantee our future and maintain our first place as the biggest agro-economy nation in Africa”, he added.

Chairman House Committee on Agric Kaduna State House of Assembly, Abdullahi Bello reassured farmers of the readiness of the legislature to enact laws that would ensure the availability of arable and secured land for farm use.

He said members were aware of security challenges preventing a large number of farmers from accessing farmlands, adding that members had already moved to make farmlands more productive.

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