The Seed for Resillience Project being co-piloted by Crop Diversity Trust (Crop Trust) and the National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechology (NACGRAB), Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria has been said to have impacted positively on over 1,000 farmers across Nigeria.
The project is put together with the sole aim of tackling climate change and to ensure food security.
Farmers are being guided by Germplasm Users’ Group (GUG), for sorghum, cowpea and other crops relevant to climate change in selecting the appropriate variety of seeds for cultivation, in order to get improved yield.
Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune after a technical meeting of the Technical Working Group (TWG), which held at the conference room of NACGRAB in Ibadan, activity leader for the project, Dr Bisi Alamu, said: “Over the past three years, we have been engaging farmers in Oyo, Niger and Kano states with regards to diversity of seeds conseved in the gene bank for farmers to have access to it and make good use of it for their production.
“In the states, we have 49 cluster groups and over the past three years, the project has impacted over 1,000 farmers. Looking at the diversity of seeds exposed to farmers, some of them have been adopted by the farmers, some with good quality traits such as early maturity variety, high yielding among others.
“In the year 2023, the farmers multiplied the seeds they selected, after the multiplication of the seeds, they are ready to share with other farmers in order to enhance the use of material conserved in the gene bank.”
Also, speaking, Acting Director, NACGRAB, Dr A.U Okere, expressed delight about the fact that farmers are making good use of the seeds made available to them through the project, calling on them to intesify effort by sharing with more farmers so that Nigeria’s food and nutrition security can further be guaranteed.
The project is taking place in five African countries namely: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia and Ethiopia.
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