Some farmers in Kano state 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 gave the commendation on Saturday 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.

Ms Gadzama said that she recorded 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 more nutritious harvests,” she said.

She also appealed to the federal government to provide subsidised fertiliser 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 disclosed that he had, nonetheless, saved part of the seeds for this planting season.

Mr Kunya added that the red variety of sorghum he planted for two seasons was very nutritious and reached early maturity.

“The red variety I got from the agency was very good; it matures very early and because of its nutritional value, we make baby food with it.

“This variety is also resilient to drought and we would like this to be made available on a large scale,” he added.

Mairo Uba, from Tiga, said that she adopted the variety of copwpea as a result of its quality, traits, early maturity, and high yields, among others.

“We have also multiplied the seeds we selected in 2023 and disseminated them to other farmers,” Ms Uba explained.

Yahaya Wada, a farmer from Tiga, also 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 they are resilient to drought,” he said.

Mr Wada also called on the federal government to provide subsidised fertiliser for them.

Earlier, Abisoye Ojo, deputy director of NACGRAB, said that the programme was a component of user engagement activities within the framework of the 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.

Speaking also, the chief scientific officer of NACGRAB, Muyiwa Olubiyi, stressed the importance of crop conservation, saying that it would enable researchers to access the different indigenous crop samples in the gene bank for breeding, particularly in view of climate change.

Mr Olubiyi said that the project exposed the diversity of sorghum, cowpea and other crops to farmers and other users in Nigeria in order to mitigate the effects of climate change, boost farmers’ productivity and ensure food and nutrition security in Nigeria.

He said that the project was successful based on feedback from farmers and other users.

Mr Olubiyi said that the response showed that the good-quality seeds planted yielded well in multiples compared to the previous years.

(NAN)