Wheat seeds: Stakeholders query import for dry season planting

                                          

Some stakeholders in the wheat value chain have raised concern over the Federal Government ( FG) wheat seeds imported for dry season farming in view of the recently released varieties by Lake Chad Research Institute ( LCRI).

The FG through its Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security ( FMAFS) said it has imported heat tolerant wheat varieties of Borlaug 100 from Mexico and Attila Gan Agatila, both which had been officially released by the Varietal Release Committee for commercialization to farmers in 2023 and 2019 respectively.

The question the stakeholders were asking is why the import since these two varieties had been released for official multiplications in 2019 and Borlaug 100 in year 2023.

Many of them who preferred anonymity queried why funding publicly bred varieties that cannot be multiplied for farmers' use, argued that importing Attila variety that is supposed to have been multiplied and released to farmers since 2019 was still being imported in 2023.

They described the  import as; insensitivity to the development of our seeds system, added that the two varieties are there with LCRI that are supposed to be provided with funds for official multiplications in partnership with private seed companies to prevent double spending on import of seeds we can generate.

Recall that the Executive Director ( ED) of LCRI, Prof. Baba GANA Karba had sometime in an interview with Foodfarmnews appealed to all tiers of government to take official multiplications of the new released varieties very serious through funding support to ensure the certified seeds getting into the hands of farmers.

But all efforts to get across to the ED was fruitless even at a text message sent to him to get his view on the import being embarked upon by the FMAFS despite their official release at the national varietal release committee in Ibadan.

Dr. ( Mrs) Maryam Dawud who spoke with us agreed on the position taken by aggreived stakeholders who criticized the import saying there is a need for aggressive wheat seeds multiplication to avert buying from outside, but pointed the need for the import for this year so as to meet the shortfall.

Dr.Dawud said " To be realistic to ourselves,  we are not producing enough foundational seeds to give to farmers as certified seeds, and that is the reason we have to import to augument the short fall. The paucity of fund is a great challenge. We need the political back up for more certified wheat seeds availability for planting to feed our nation in million tons, otherwise we might not be able to feed ourselves"

She pointed that fund for multiplication for this year has been released to buttress the position of the former Executive Director, LCRI now a consultant expert on wheat productivity, Dr. Oluwasina Olabanji who had earlier spoken with us on the import matters saying the decision taken by the FG was born out of the resolutions of the last year meeting towards the cultivation of 250,000 hectares of wheat which what we had cannot be enough.

Olabanji argued that was why the FG had to import the shortfall of the two varieties to augument the 2023 dry planting season adding there would no longer be any import from next year.

He pointed further that under the Agro Pocket Seeds Distribution, LCRI and other National Agricultural Research Institutes ( NARIs) have been given a budget to embark on wheat seeds multiplication for the country, and that is why we are certain there would not be any import from next year.

The former ED stressed that releasing an improved new variety did not mean we have had the prerequisite quantity, but rather the variety being released was based on better quality traits over others.