The Managing Director of Kaduna based seedlings company ECOBasic- seed, Brighton Kuruma, has said surest way for Nigeria to achieve food security in no distant time is to adopt the use of hybrid seeds capable of producing bumper harvest needed for domestic consumption and exports.
The MD made the assertion in Jaji, Kaduna State while flagging off demo for hybrid maize seedlings manufactured by the company to increase the yields of grains to maximize harvest and create wealth for farmers.
According to him, the foundation seeds outfit since its establishment had been carrying out consistent research on modern methods to improving the quality and performance of the foundation seed with undiluted purity geared towards achieving self-sufficiency in agric food production.
The company, called EcoBasicSeed, according to Karume, represented at the occasion by Commercial Manager of the company in West Africa Moses Atewogboye disclosed that the use of hybrid seed was apt, considering the rising incidents of banditry which he noted had prevented farmers from accessing large chunk of land for farming.
“If you were getting two tones of maize from one hectre of land, with our hybrid and high performance seed called Tela, derived from Latin word for resistance, farmers could get four to six tonnes of maize.
“Drought and pests are factors mitigating against most countries in West Africa, particularly Nigeria from attaining the status of food sufficiency and agric products export giants.
“The only visible solution to these problems is to embrace the practice of modern technology with minimum farming space but increased and bumper harvests capable of taking our nations in West Africa to attaining selfreliance in food production.
“We have to be deliberate and wholeheartedly embrace drought and pests tolerant seed for profitablity.
“With our population growing at astronomical pace, what we produce cannot be sufficient for the consumption of our people, thus the need to discard the use of our old ways of food production and embrace improved methods,” he counseled.
In his remarks as a special guest at the occasion, kaduna House Committee Chairman on Agriculture Abdullahi Bello underscored the imperative of utilizing technology for improving food production to achieve federal government’s project for food security and self-sufficiency in agriculture.
Bello said any plan of diversifying the economy of the country and depending less on oil income must first of all take into play the important role seeds can play in increasing agric output on small area of farmland.
“I must at this juncture commend the Governor of Kaduna State Uba Sani for taking the initiative towards complementing the efforts of the federal government in attaining selfreliance in food production by distributing fertilizer and other farm implements free of charge to farmers.
“We all are aware of the effects of banditry on farming, especially in Northwest region which has adversely affected harvest of food for local consumption.
“I must also acknowledge the timely effort of governments to checkmate destructive activities of these bandits to free up more farming land for utilization.
“In the meantime,We must encourage our farmers to embrace technology for improved production as we have seen here today with this Demo and juxtaposing between regular maize and hybrid product using a scientific method,”he said.
He urged the executive arms of government to focus their efforts in rural areas by fixing read infrastructure and other amenities to make farming activities worthwhile.