‘Why I Recommended GIZ/IITA-Developed Cassava Seedling To My Co-Farmers’
Mrs Dorcas Alamu, a farmer, has said that the reason she recommended the GIZ/IITA-developed cassava seedlings to her co-farmers was because of the fact that the the variety is quite unique in terms of yield compared to the regular ones.
Alamu, stated this during a field visit to her farm in Gbana, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, by officials of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the funder of the cassava project, Building An Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed system (BASICS-II), GIZ-GIAE Nigeria, recently.
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She noted that what prompted her to recommend the cassava stems to other women farmers was that:”When we came to IITA for training, we were told that if we use the seed variety, we are going to make profit. And with the way things are in the farm as you can see shows that the harvest would be a bumper one.
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“One good thing about this cassava variety is that since it was planted in May, I have only weeded only once. If it were to be the regular ones, one would have weeded about three times. So I have not regretted venturing into this business of planting this cassava variety and I want to use this opportunity to call on fellow farmers who are yet to plant this cassava to please give it a try and I am very sure they won’t regret doing so.”
While welcoming the visitors, traditional ruler of the community, Elero of Pamoland, Oba Ayobami Ogunmakinde, who was represented by the Agbaakin of Orile Pamo, Chief Timothy Oyewusi, expressed delight at seeing the visitors, with a plea to step up work on the project.
The traditional ruler also used the opportunity of the gathering to call on farmers to jettison the old way of doing farming and embrace mechanisation as new means of practising agriculture.
In her remarks, the leader of the FMARD delegation, Dr Ngozi Odunze, explained that the visit was to assess the progress of the project, ensure that the implementation was according to plan and also seek for areas of adjustments.
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“I am happy with the level of progress, I am satisfied that even when the project elapsed, we’ve been able to increase access to an improved method of planting cassava.”
While explaining the approach the project adopted, the Project Manager, Dr. Godwin Atser, pointed out that the project was creating job and income opportunities for farmers and young people while at the same time establishing a sustainable seed system for cassava using the BASICS Model developed by another IITA project, Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed system (BASICS-II).
The cassava value chain advisor for GIAE Nigeria, Dr. Abidemi Ajibola said the project was one of the COVID-19 measures by the international organisation to improve productivity, livelihood opportunities especially for the youth and women and contribute to food and nutritional security.
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