Food security: Kaduna State, AGRA inspect farms to assess crops yield

Tue, Sep 15, 2020
By editor
3 MIN READ

Agriculture

THE Kaduna State Government and  Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) on Tuesday began a three-day on-the-spot assessment of selected farms to evaluate the 2020 crop yields in the state.

The News Agency of Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the assessment is to evaluate the level of improvement in terms of yields in Rice, Maize, and Soya beans on selected farms at  Kwanar Farakwai, Igabi LG in the state.

The Kaduna State Comissioner of Agriculture, Halima Lawal, said during the visit that the tour was to evaluate the level of growth and yield of the crops, following the application of different faterlizers on such crops.

Lawal said the move was based on research studies to ensure high level yield, to increase productivity and food security.

The comissioner said the tour was also to observe what had been happening in collaboration with Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), AGRA, FEPSAN and the farmers.

“Result of these crops is a trial and demonstration process for fatilizer blend against the usual application of NPK on all crops.

“IAR and AGRA thought we should use a targeted fertilizer blend that is required of the crop and soil,” she said.

Lawal explained that some lands were no longer fertile resulting from the abuse in their usage by farmers among other factors.

“As we have seen the development, we also discussed with the farmers, but we cannot determine the complete result until harvest, then we can say the fatilizer blend is better than farm one, two, three or four.

“For now, the crops have met all the conditions to make sure the results are acceptable and in line with the scientific test,” Lawal said.

Also speaking during the evaluation tour, the Country Director of Synergos, Mr Victor Adejoh, said the excercise was part of their support to the Kaduna State Ministry of Agriculture.

He said the support was through the AGRA-funded capacity strengthening projects for the ministry.

Adejoh noted that the tour was to strengthen the relationship between the government, farmers, scientists, and critical stakeholders in the Agric sector.

“This engagement is meant to help government deliver on the policies that have been developed and also to continue to create enabling environment for the private sector to continue to grow their  sectors” Adejoh said.

He lauded the government for the effort in improving agriculture, ensuring food security and it’s open governance policies to ensure farmers had access to inputs and improved practices.

Also speaking, Dr Aliyu Anchau, a staff of IAR, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said NPK fertilizers had been in blanket use for decades on different varieties of crops irrespective of soil texture and the nutrients it required.

“This initiative is research to help come up with the best blend of fertilizer that is compatible with a particular crop and soil.

“The target is also to have a particular fertilizer with crop ion for the best yield for the same crop,” Anchau said.

A farmer at Kwanar Farakwai, Sulaiman Gwadabe, expressed delight on the level of improvement the crops had achieved even before harvest and thanked the stakeholders for the effort

“This is the kind of interventions and innovations we need, not for the agricultural stakeholders to come and disturb us with noise without any aid or action,” he said.

NAN reports that the team later visited Premier seeds farms and factory at Zaria, where they inspected some crops and seedlings being nursed for better yield. (NAN)

– Sept. 15, 2020 @ 18:39 GMT |

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