Seed performance excites farmers in 12 states
Cotton
By Bukola Adewumi
Abuja, Dec. 17, 2019 (NAN) Cotton farmers in the country have expressed satisfaction over the seed performance experienced during the last wet season.
Prof. Alex Akpa, the Acting Director General of National Biotechnological Development Agency (NABDA) disclosed this at the farmer’s field day on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said the primary objective of the farmers field day was to demonstrate the value and performance of the hybrid and technology applied in growing the cotton by farmers.
Akpa described as satisfactory the performances experienced by farmers across 12 states which include: Adamawa, Bauchi, Cross River, Gombe, FCT, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Ogun, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara.
According to him, this field will also serve to assess the excitement generated among cotton farmers on the seed performance with yield potential of 4.4-4.4 tonnes.
He said it would serve as stimulant to government to initiate necessary action for widespread adoption of Mahyco cotton BG2 hybrid seeds by farming communities in the cotton growing states.
“We count this as a great achievement because for years, scientists have laboured under laboratory conditions to proffer solutions to the destructive effects of pink bollworm on our cotton farms and the associated low yield.
”The closest they got to success was the use of pesticides, but this has its own negative effects on the environment and as well, plagues the profit margin of the cotton,” he said.
He said to generate yields at economically viable scales for farmers, it had become necessary to use advanced technology tool like genetic engineering in crop production.
Dr Rose Gidado, Deputy Director, NABDA, said the country needed to be globally competitive in advancing technology and economically remunerative for cotton farmers.
He said it was to encourage farmers to go back to cotton farming in order to contribute to Nigeria Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which the country needed earnestly.
According to him, implementation of new technologies is crucial to enhance yields up to four tonnes per hectare instead of less than one tonne per hectare, as is now the case.
She said that the journey to deploy Bt. cotton to Nigeria started in 2010 when farmers in Burkina Faso were reaping the benefits of it, adding that the government of Burkina Faso was making 2 billion dollars annually.
Mr Abayomi Oguntunde, Director Bio Resources Technology, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, who represented the minster, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, said Nigeria had joined the big league in cotton production.
He also disclosed that Nigeria had joined the comity of nations in the area of transgenic cotton development and adoption.
He stated that the government’s resolve was to make available and accessible to farmers improved technologies that would also enhance their yield and income.
According to him, one such economically viable and environmentally sound solution to the problem of the cotton boll worm infestation is to develop cotton varieties that have inherent attributes to resist the lepidopteran pink boll worm.
He said subsequent to the release of the hybrids, free samples were being given to farmers in the last two years across the 14 states of Nigeria.
He said this would enable farmers to experience the difference and perceived the benefits of cotton farming in terms of high yields and pest resistance. (NAN)
BOL/MAM/ISMA
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Edited by Modupe Adeloye/Ismail Abdulaziz