‘Inoculant reduces cost of fertilizer’

This was disclosed at a recent meeting, in Abuja, by the Country Director of the N2Africa-Nigeria project, Dr. Benard Vanlauwe, who works with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Oyo state.“To fix 100 kilogrammes of nitrogen to legumes costs about $5 per hectare, while 100 kilogrammes of urea fertiliser costs $100 per hectare, […]

This was disclosed at a recent meeting, in Abuja, by the Country Director of the N2Africa-Nigeria project, Dr. Benard Vanlauwe, who works with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Oyo state.
“To fix 100 kilogrammes of nitrogen to legumes costs about $5 per hectare, while 100 kilogrammes of urea fertiliser costs $100 per hectare, so, you can now see the cost benefit,” the country director told reporters in an interview.
Vanlauwe maintained that if the government and other stakeholders take interest in the project, the erstwhile groundnut pyramids will come back and production of other legumes will be boosted in the country.
Also speaking, the N2Africa-Nigeria Country Coordinator, Dr. Emmanuel A. Sangodele, who also works with the IITA, explained that inoculants are bacteria in powdered form, produced and packaged in sachets for the farmers to apply on their seeds before planting.
“When the seeds are planted, the bacteria then naturally fix nitrogen from the air to the soil for the leguminous crops to utilise and yield more,” Sangodele stressed.
He said the major challenge the project faces is production of the inoculant in large quantity as only one company is presently producing it.
The researcher urged the private sector to establish companies that will produce inoculants to supply farmers across the country to boost their output and income.
Speaking to journalists earlier, the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist of the N2Africa project, Theresa Ampadu-Boakye, said the intervention was initiated to change the productivity and income levels of smallholder farmers, which has remained low over the years.
A farmer, Isa Audu Teli, who is also the Director of Agriculture and Technical Services of the Borno State Agricultural Development Project (BOSADP), told reporters that the N2Africa project was impacting positively on farmers, vertically and horizontally, through employment and income generation, increased yield and area of cultivation among others.