The Executive Director of National Cereals Research Institute Badeggi; Dr Aliyu Umar has called on Nigerian farmers to cooperate with other stakeholders in the agricultural value chain in order to minimize the devastating effects of climate change as they assist Nigeria to achieve sufficiency in production of food and agro based tawa materials.
The Executive Director of the nation’s institute for the development of rice, sugarcane, soybean and other important crops made this assertion on Tuesday, the 4th day of October, 2022 at Bacita, Edu LGA of Kwara state during this year’s annual farmers field day organized by the Bacita Outstation of the institute.
Dr Aliyu Umar noted that “without deliberate and concerted efforts towards cooperation and collaboration amongst farmers, scientists, National Research Institutes(NARIS) and policy makers, the country’s food value chain may be seriously affected by extreme weather events which is being witnessed across globally”.
In his keynote address Aliyu Umar encouraged farmers to always ensure that they cooperate with research institutes through the adoption of new technologies developed to address the ongoing effects of climate change. He said one of such efforts which was recently concluded by the institute is the development and release of two high yielding varieties of rice which has the capacity to mature early and yet yield up to ten metric tons of rice per hectare.
He however said as impactful as the research innovation would be, the only thing that can ensure it helps the nation sustain its growing rice production is for farmers and and extension agents to cooperate effectively on its adoption and utilization. Aliyu charged scientists and policy makers to adopt the simple communication approach in disseminating scientific innovations so that adoption of technologies and strategies meant for adaptation to climate change will not look difficult for farmers to understand and eventually adopt.
The NCRI boss also noted that the current Federal Government of Nigeria is doing a lot to ensure the increasing agricultural productivity of the country is not reversed by extreme weather events such as unusual flooding and drought which are being witnessed in various parts of the country.
Welcoming farmers to the event , the Lead Scientist and the Head of Bacita Outstation of the institute, Mr Mumeen, A. Yusuf assured farmers and other farming stakeholders in Kwara state that the research station will continue to facilitate opportunities for Kwara farmers to benefits in all national activities of the institute.He informed that access to such privileges is one of the essence of having a developmental institute’s outstation located in a state.
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