LAGOS – The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan, National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike and five other institutions and companies have developed 11 new hybrid crop varieties for Nigerian farmers.
Dr Sunday Aladele, the Registrar, National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB), told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) of the development in Lagos on Monday.
Aladele said the National Varieties Release Committee (NVRC), which has NACGRAB as its secretariat, had officially approved and registered the new hybrid crop varieties and released them on Thursday.
He said other institutes that were involved in the research and development of the crops were the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) Zaria and the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI), Badeggi.
Aladele said that Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IART) Ibadan, DuPont Pioneer Seeds, Nigeria and Seed Co. West Africa also developed some of the crop varieties.
Giving further details, he said five maize varieties were developed by IAR, Seed Co., IITA, IART, and DuPont.
Aladele said two sesame varieties were developed by NCRI while three cassava varieties were developed by NRCRI and IITA.
The Registrar said the only soybean variety was developed by NCRI and IITA.
He urged Nigerian farmers and interested persons or groups who needed the crop varieties to contact NACGRAB or any of the institutes and companies that developed them.
Aladele lamented that many Federal Government owned research institutes had never attended the NVRC meetings.
He said since the research institutes had developed varieties of crops, livestock and fisheries, they should come forward and submit them to NACGRAB during the meetings.
The Registrar said bringing such newly developed varieties to NACGRAB would make it possible for them to have official approval, registration and release to farmers and Nigerians in general.
Aladele called on them to start coming with their agricultural research findings.
He also appealed to the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria to do all it could to make the research institutes change their attitude.
The Registrar commended the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme and other stakeholders for their support for the NVRC meetings. (NAN)
