Wheat: Olam advocates investment in agriculture
The Country Head for Olam Agri Nigeria, Ashish Pande has called for a consistent channeling investment into agriculture to address the challenges of the global food value chain. Pande also reiterated the company’s resolve to continue to inject human, financial, and technical resources into the N300 million wheat value chain development project that was launched […]
The Country Head for Olam Agri Nigeria, Ashish Pande has called for a consistent channeling investment into agriculture to address the challenges of the global food value chain.
Pande also reiterated the company’s resolve to continue to inject human, financial, and technical resources into the N300 million wheat value chain development project that was launched in 2021.
He said this during a webinar held to unveil the one year report of the ‘Seeds for the Future’ programme.
“There are challenges currently in the global food value chain. What this means is that, we must look inward to ensure a consistent supply of food to feed our population by channeling investment into agriculture,” he said.
The Director of Agricultural Research at Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI), Dr Zakari Turaki said strong partnerships and collaborative efforts between public institutions and private firms remain vital to raising the current level of the local wheat harvest.
Unveiling the project report, Filippo Bassi, a professional seed breeder from the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and consultant on the project, said: “The 10 Kg pre-multiplication wheat seed varieties produced so far will be planted next season in 1,000m2 plots at the Azumbu farm research station in Jigawa.”
Between 2021 and September 2022, the ‘Seeds for the Future’ programme has produced 10Kg of pre-multiplication wheat seed varieties that suit the unique local topography and climate.
This was contained in the first-year report presented during the third edition of the agribusiness stakeholders’ consultative forum, the Olam Agri Greenland Webinar Series held recently.