By Bisola Adeyemo
African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) has promised to assist farmers by releasing 10 tons of Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) Cowpea to get the best yield in farming.
Dr. Issoufou kollo, the Regional Coordinator of AATF, made this known on Wednesday in Abuja saying this would be the first generation of PBR to be released to farmers before the farming season begins in June/July.
Kollo declared that the main objective was to get the seedlings in the hands of farmers for cropping while they work on the second generation of cowpea.
He stated that the seedlings will be handed over to the National Agricultural Seed Council so that farmers could access from certified seed companies in various states.
According to him, “we tend to get 10,000 farmers growing cowpea this year so we will make the produce available for Nigerians at low price.
“This year, we are targeting to get as many farmers as we can but our plans are a little bit offset because of low rain during the rainy season.”
Recalling back to 2020, Dr. kollo said that there was a hike in the price of cowpea in the market because the supply of production was low due to a shortage of rain.
“Before now, the plan was to get around 20 metric tons of seeds for farmers but the rainy season offset things but we hope to get a little bit above 10 tons for farmers this year.”
He said that “there had been a lot of pressure from farmers that had seen the outcome of the PBR cowpea which was demonstrated in Kano and Zaria to get the seed to plant.”
Kollo said farmers had accepted the breed and “we are under very high pressure by farmers that have seen the demonstration asking for the seeds.
“This is the reason why we are partnering with the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) to use irrigation to produce more.”
He stated that AATF has been doing everything possible to ensure they do not delay or disappoint farmers, meanwhile the foundation was also considering training farmers and extension workers.
Kollo said that more techniques were needed to control the other insects, stressing that there was a need to train them on how to grow the PBR cowpea. however, growing the seed was not different from the conventional cowpea.
“It requires the same agronomy practices, employing the right distance with the application of fertilizer, control the weed and protect from insects by spraying.”
Kollo said the advantage of PBR cowpea was that it could only be sprayed twice while the conventional cowpea was usually sprayed six to 10 times in a planting season, noted that it usually saved the farmers money spent on pesticides to control pests.
Farmers and scientists in Africa have identified legume pod borer as one of the most damaging insect pests limiting cowpea production.
AATF has been working with smallholder farmers to ensure that there is food security through innovative agricultural technologies that could deliver and yield good results in Africa.
