‘We are working to curtail maize production constraints’
Why the new research on maize seed?Maize is a staple food crop. It is hard to find any home that does not utilise maize. It is either used as fresh maize or processed and it is also an industrial crop used for corn oil. Besides, maize is the second most important staple food especially in […]
Why the new research on maize seed?
Maize is a staple food crop. It is hard to find any home that does not utilise maize. It is either used as fresh maize or processed and it is also an industrial crop used for corn oil. Besides, maize is the second most important staple food especially in Nigeria.
Over the years, the productivity of maize in Nigeria has been low. It is in that regard that the federal government set up maize value chain to improve its productivity and its different forms of uses. It is also to increase productivity from the level we are now of 2 tons per hectare to at least between 2.5 and 3 tons per hectare so that farmers can be able to derive maximum benefit. Once the farmers are able to derive maximum benefit in terms of income, their livelihood will improve.
The new project we are bringing into Makurdi under CORAF is to improve the productivity of maize in production system. In West Africa, we have five countries, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Benin and Cote d’Ivore. We want to raise productivity from the current 2 tons to 2.5 tons in the next three years using Open Pollinated Variety (OPV).
We are fortunate to be one of the beneficiaries of the project and it is going to be implemented in Nigeria by Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and University of Agriculture, Makurdi. With this development, people of Benue State are going to have opportunity for an access to improved maize variety that can mitigate the major constraint of maize production.
The issue of low soil fertility is also another constraint. We also have to deploy improved technology. Maize is a high fiber, the major nutrient is nitrogen, if we keep on producing maize from a particular place, it depletes the soil and so we are also looking at a way to replenish the soil to improve its nutrients and a lot of these borders on technology.
Do you have plans to improve on drought resistant maize?
Yes. What we have to look at now is the issue of climate change. If you look at the rain pattern now, it has changed from what it used to be. Benue used to be a valley of high rainfall but if you look at the pattern in the last five years, it has changed. It now seems like we have terminal drought. Even last year, farmers were disappointed because terminal drought came up and that affected productivity. Because of the issue of climate change, we have to deploy improved technology to mitigate against this adverse effect.
From the way things are now, we are going to be experiencing terminal drought; it is either rain will not start early or it would stop abruptly towards the end of the season and farmers would count losses. Even the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) has predicted that we are going to experience drought this year, so we are prepared with improved seeds for farmers to be able to utilise the rainfall that we will have in order to mitigate and help high productivity.
So, like I earlier mentioned, Benue State is fortunate and would derive the benefit of having the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi located here. The people in the state and others within the north-central axis would benefit from the technology immensely.
How early will the farmers get the seed so that they don’t fall victim of the drought?
Because of the prediction that there might likely be drought this year, farmers should not buy seeds from the open market because they would not know the maturity period of that maize, neither would they know the true identity of that variety. What we are doing to mitigate against that period of drought is to deploy early maturity maize variety that is high yielding and also drought tolerant to farmers.
Where do you advice the farmers to go for their seeds?
They have to go to recognised institutions. They can go to Benue State Agricultural Development Authority (BNARDA) which will direct them to the right seed company and advice them on the appropriate varieties to use in-order not to fall victim of the prediction. There are some seed companies that have small outlets located over the place as well.
How would you quantify the monetary value of the new project?
USAID through CORAF is committing almost $600,000 to improving maize productivity in five West African countries. The first phase of the project will last for three years. The project which is going to be sponsored by CORAF and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is going to use a pilot scheme in one local government. We are working in collaboration with farmers so that the pilot project would be used to scale out to other communities and we are also expecting that the state would show support so that we will be able to get the extension agents to work with us. In the next one month, we will identify the local government to work with in the states concerned. In this project, we are going to work with the farmers as well as seed companies to be able to sell it to the larger society.
What are the major challenges faced by farmers and which the new project is designed to address?
In terms of challenges, farmers have incurred loses through poor storage. Inappropriate storage method makes the farmers to lose lots of money because of the weevil that destroys the maize during storage and that is why most of the farmers sell their produce even at farm gates. So, this project would train farmers on the best storage method and also processing as well as harvesting. Maize now also has this issue of afflatoxin because of improper storage method and improper transportation which makes it grow mud and then get contaminated.
The entire project is a package that would increase productivity, processing and storage, best agronomy practices and also linking producers to processors and marketers. The end result would be that farmers will increase their yields and their livelihood will definitely improve.
Are there future plans to introduce Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) in the production of maize when the bio-safety bill is signed into law?
Of course, yes. As I mentioned earlier, there are so many constraints, if you also look at drought in maize. We are making frantic effort to ensure that most of these problems we have are genetically improved in maize to withstand production constraints. If we are able to do real conventional maize or we are not able to through biotechnology either through molecular breeding or scientific engineering the whole emphasis is that we are able to increase maize activities to curtail production constraints. In America, through hybrid, they get up to five tons per hectare whereas in Africa, we are still struggling to produce two tons so we begin to wonder why the low productivity. Those are the things we want to look into because having the improved seed alone will not give us the desired result; we also need the sound management practices in order to achieve the goal.