100,000 sorghum farmers get improved seeds, fertilisers

The minister, who said this in Jalingo during a three-day training for 100 sorghum farmers drawn from Taraba, Adamawa and Borno States, expressed the determination of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in boosting the production of the crop in the country.The minister who was represented by Deputy Director, Sorghum Transformation Value Chain, Opara Obinna, said […]

The minister, who said this in Jalingo during a three-day training for 100 sorghum farmers drawn from Taraba, Adamawa and Borno States, expressed the determination of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in boosting the production of the crop in the country.
The minister who was represented by Deputy Director, Sorghum Transformation Value Chain, Opara Obinna, said the workshop was to update farmers with improved modern agronomic and cultural practices in sorghum production for bumper and quality output.
“This training was borne out of recognition that our farmers need to be updated with improved/modern Agronomic and Cultural Practices required to attain the full potentials of the improved high yielding sorghum varieties distributed to them through FMARD GES platform for maximum productivity and quality grain uptake”, he said.
He said the Sorghum Transformation Value Chain of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture focuses on improving the nourishment and ensuring food and nutrition security of consumers of sorghum in the country especially within the North East and North West sub regions.
He said that with the improved sorghum seeds already made available to farmers, they now have yield of between 2.0-2.5 metric tonnes per hectare as against the local variety which yields only 0.8 metric tonnes per hectare.
Participants at the training workshop were given well packaged booklets written in both Hausa and English Language, containing all the basic information farmers need to know about sorghum production from pre-planting, planting, chemical applications up till harvest and post harvest.
The participating framers were also taken to a sorghum farm in Jalingo where it was practically demonstrated to them good practices that would enhance better productivity and quality grain uptake.