A number of Kano State farmers have commended the National Centre For Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB), Crop Trust and German Development Bank(KfW) for providing them with climate-resilient crop varieties.
The farmers expressed their appreciation yesterday during NACGRAB’s seed dissemination exercise to the Germplasm User Group in Bagauda near Kano.
Jummai Gadzama, a female farmer from Bagauda, commended the agency and its partners for their impressive gesture, adding that she was able to record a bountiful harvest after cultivating the improved white sorghum.
“The seeds I used before yielded small harvests but the seeds I got from NACGRAB and crop trust yielded much bigger and nutritious harvests,” she said.
She then appealed to the federal government to provide subsidized fertilizer and other farm implements.
Another farmer from Minjibir local government, Salisu Kunya, who lauded the federal government’s agency for the gesture, said that he would like to obtain another batch of improved seeds from NACGRAB.
He however disclosed that he had saved part of the seeds for this planting season.
Kunya added the red variety of sorghum he planted for two seasons was very nutritious and early maturity.
His words: “The red variety I got from the agency was very good, matures very early and because of its nutritional value we make baby food with it.
“This variety also is resilient to drought and we like this to be made available on a large scale.”
Mairo Uba, from Tiga, revealed that she adopted the variety of cowpea as a result of its quality, traits, early maturity, high yields, among others.
“We have also multiplied the seeds we selected in year 2023 and as well disseminated it to other farmers,” Uba explained.
In his own remarks, Yahaya Wada, a farmer from Tiga explained that the variety of sorghum they harvested in 2022 and 2023 was very productive; good for both human consumption and animal feeding.
“The varieties of sorghum are better compared to our local varieties, because it is resilient to drought,” he said.
Wada also called on the federal government to provide subsidized fertilizer for them.
Also speaking, Dr Abisoye Ojo, Deputy Director, NACGRAB, said that the programme was a component of user engagement activities within the framework Seed for Resilience (S4R) project which was being implemented in three states in Nigeria namely Oyo, Niger and Kano.
According to her, 150 samples of both indigenous and unique accessions of sorghum and cowpea were planted in order to mitigate the effects of climate change in the country.