Wheat: Varietal release stakeholders commend Jigawa Governor

The stakeholders at the recently concluded 30^th meeting of the National Committee on naming, registration and release of crops, livestock breeds and fisheries varieties have hailed the support given by the Governor of Jigawa state, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abubakar to the development of a particular variety of Durum pasta wheat called ‘’MBA-MAJA (GERARDO)’’ that has high potential to produce pasta like Semolina, biscuits and spaghetti.

This variety of Durum wheat named after the Governor of Jigawa state was among the newly registered and released varieties by the National Committee on Varietal Release (NCVR) headed by Chief Oladosu Awoyemi who praised the Excellency’s contributions for the meeting and variety development.

 The Director, National Centre for Genetic Research and Biotechnology (NACGRAB), and  Registrar, NVRC, Dr. Sunday Aladele said the enthusiasm exhibited by the Governor  is worthy of emulations by others to achieving agricultural development through improved innovations and research technologies availability to farmers towards food security and more economic earnings for rural economy, adding this was commendable especially for wheat production.

Dr. Aladele said that ‘’ I must commend the Governor of Jigawa state, apart from supporting this varietal release meeting, he also wanted to be physically present to express his favourable disposition to agricultural development with the use of improved technologies through partnership with the Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI) who has the national mandate on wheat genetic to bring up the new variety of MBA-MAJA as another wheat variety in the country’’

Also, the former Executive Director, and presently a national consultant on wheat productivity for Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Dr. Oluwasina Olabanji said ‘’ I must hailed the Jigawa state government who supported the research improvement of one of the Durum wheat varieties popularly called the MBA-MAJA that has just been released for commercialization in order to assist the farmers’’ adding this was the first time such variety will be registered in Nigeria for pasta products that millions people eat everyday.

 Olabanji commending the Governor for his support to farmers through Anchor Borrower Program of the CBN said that nine thousand hectares of bread wheat plantation established in the state is to mitigate importation, adding that presently more farmers now preferred to cultivate the produce more than maize and millet crops.

He described the Governor as someone that understands the potential of developing agriculture to galvanise economic activities for the rural people using an improved technologies and innovations that will make life better for the people.

Speaking on behalf of the Governor, the commissioner of Agriculture, Jigawa State,  Mallam Mohammed Alhassan said his boss is very much passionate about using Agriculture to enhance the living standard of rural farmers towards sustainable food security, employment and more economic earnings, added this has been the reason behind the support being given to ensure the research development and registration of MBA-MAJA wheat for the use of farmers in general.

Alhassan stressed that the governor has impacted on farmers by timely releases of inputs for farmers in many crops, just as he ensures best agronomic agricultural practices with well functioning extension services being provided by the State’s Agricultural Development and Rural Authority (JARDA), an assertion which was buttressed by the Managing Director (MD) of JARDA, Alhaji Imam Mohammed who also commended His Excellency for proper funding of his Agency.

JARDA MD, Alhaji Mohammed said that the governor has impacted positively on farmers’ yield on both wheat and other crops with support through improved seeds which are timely supplied with agro chemicals to checkmate pest disease so as to ensure pumper harvest, added that cluster farming system was adapted to group farmers for commercial production.

According to him ‘’ the cluster farming system is an effort of his Excellency and the initiative of this administration as farmers are grouped together in a particular space of land to cultivate same particular crop, and they are provided with necessary inputs like fertilizers, improved seeds and agro chemicals which they pay back after harvest either in kind or cash. The yields of farmers have improved drastically through this approach of His Excellency’’

Also speaking, the Director General (DG) Jigawa Agricultural Research Institute, Dr. Damisa Lawan saluted the ingenuity of the Governor for research improvement to crops which he has exhibited in the MBA-MAJA Durum wheat saying another variety will soon be brought through his effort, pointing that his Institute is working with those ones that had national mandate for both wheat and rice improvements.

Dr. Lawan  commended the Governor saying that  ‘’His Excellency met with us at the research Institute with sufficient support to enhance our technical activities in the area of research into improved technologies for farmers in order to increase on their acreage yield through the use of improved seeds with high tolerant to diseases, and the MBA-MAJA was one of the  cultivars  brought to us by the Governor that we partnered with Lake Chad Research Institute to generate into registration and national release as improved variety’’

However, the Senior Special Adviser ( SSA) to the government on agriculture, Dr. Mohammed Idrith Danzomo also described  his Governor as someone who takes the sector very serious to job creation and more economic earning of the rural people saying his Excellency has brought him to ensure continuity of the good agricultural programmes in the state towards food security.

Danzomo said that ‘’ the good thing about this wheat variety is that it was introduced by his Excellency about three to four years ago, and it has actually been adopted by the Jigawa state government, and is already giving a very good yield to farmers in line with food policy of His Excellency to ensuring rapid rural transformation the will checkmate rural urban migration of younger people’’