The National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT) and Syngenta Nigeria Limited recently organised a Farmer – Researcher Open Field day at Kadawa Irrigation Station, Kano State. The one day event was a participatory evaluation event for Tomato, Sweet-Pepper and Cabbage varieties. AgroNigeria in an interview with the Head of Station, NIHORT Baguada, Kano state – Dr. Steven Olaiya Afolayan, discussed the existing opportunities and challenges of slow adoption of improved varieties in the horticulture value chain. Excerpts:

 

Sir, kindly introduce yourself and shed more light on the event.

I am Dr. Steven Olaiya Afolayan, I am presently the Head of Station, NIHORT Bagauda, Kano and this event is organized by NIHORT and Syngenta Nigeria sub-center of Syngenta Switzerland.

You’ll observe that most of the horticultural crops in Nigeria did not go through any process of release; they just came through the back door. Well, because we have not been able to stimulate the farmers in terms of sourcing for variable seeds tolerant to diseases, environmentally friendly and of high yield; farmers have no choice but to scavenge for seeds anywhere. This program is now in the process of releasing some horticultural crops of higher yielding capacity than what the farmers are used to and that is what has brought us all here today.

So is it an awareness event?

Yes, but more than that, it’s really a practical-oriented advocacy programme. Now that the farmers are seated, the aim is to bring samples of those horticultural crops for them to evaluate, get to the farms and compare with their own normal day to day crops that they have been using over the years that must have disintegrated beyond what can break even.

The crops have already been harvested and displayed for them to give us their opinion based on comparison, whether they prefer them to their conventional ones.

Does the programme also include the use of Agrochemicals and other inputs?

Of course it does. As I earlier mentioned Syngenta Nigeria is into horticultural seeds and chemicals, so they are collaborating with NIHORT to evaluate the efficacy of their chemicals on the field, recommend same to farmers, give them some training on how to best to use them including fertilizer.

I also noticed that there are some people from Dangote here today

Yes. In fact it is a multinational approach; Dangote is approaching it from the value addition angle, NIHORT from the scientific addition angle and Syngenta from the service provider angle. We are working together and the state government and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture is also not left out.

Is this in any way connected to the Federal Government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda, (ATA)?

The ATA is like the key to a door. It is the key to these activities we are holding, the key to the advancement of Nigerian agriculture. Horticulture is a progressive subsector in agriculture that has the highest potential of all subsectors. The value addition and value chain is available. There is no single value chain that a youth will be involved in that he will not be able to feed his family and even also export.

 

Would you say the ATA so far been successful?

Not only is the ATA successful but it has also impacted value into the lives of farmers and to the life of the community. However our success should not get into our head until we are able to ensure that everybody keys into this agenda.

Well, is there anything else you might like to add?

What I want to add is that Nigeria is highly viable, highly fertile and has much potential when we talk of agricultural inputs. There is hardly any weather that is not replicated in Nigeria; for example, Plateau state has long seasons of harmattan, Kano state has about 3 to 4 months of harmmatan, southern states have an abundance of rain fall. So all we need is the political will, the desire and the concentrated effort to ensure that we drive this to a point that we become exporters rather than importers.