Institute to develop improved drought, flood resistant seed varieties
The Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, said it is working to provide farmers with crop seed varieties that can withstand floods to minimize losses during floods across the country.
Prof. Mohammed-Faguji Ishiyaku, Executive Director of the Institute, stated this at the 2023 annual research review and planning meeting on Wednesday in Zaria.
The theme of the meeting is “Refocusing agricultural research in a changing global climate for food security, economic development, and national development.
He said that the institute had developed a high-yielding maize variety that could tolerate drought and pests to mitigate the effects of climate change.
The executive director said in the year under review, the institute released five new maize varieties, three sorghum varieties, two oats, and one cowpea.
He added that the seeds were high-yielding, pest- and disease-tolerant, and suitable for different ecologies, among other characteristics.
According to him, a total of 108 research studies were conducted with outstanding results within the period under review.
He said that the feedback from stakeholders and the adoption of technologies from the institute by the farmers have resulted in an increase in farmers output and earnings.
According to him, the theme of the event was carefully selected to fashion ways of mitigating the negative impact of climate change on agriculture.
He said that the event was aimed at getting the opinion of the stakeholders to enable the institute to prioritize its resources towards tackling the negative impact of climate change.
“For instance, between flood and drought, which one is more frequent and more important on the field? We will hear this from the stakeholders.
“The number of hot days has increased even in the northern Guinea savannah and other ecologies that used to be relatively cool enough for crop production.
“The opinion of these key stakeholders at the meeting would inform the kind of research our scientists are going to conduct,’’ he said.
Earlier, Prof. Kabiru Bala, Vice-Chancellor, ABU Zaria, commended the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mohammed Abubakar for supporting the institute with multi-crop seed processing and sorting unit
He appealed to the minister for the return of the mandate to the institute for the improvement of some horticultural crops that the institute has a relative advantage in handling.
