Climate change: Develop new crop varieties to resist harsh effects, Don calls – MOUAU don

A call has been put forward for the development of new crop varieties that could resist the harsh effects of climate change, as otherwise, a disaster may befall Nigerians and indeed Africans.

A lecturer at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike in Abia, Prof. Peter Okocha, made the call on Wednesday, while presenting the 32nd inaugural lecture of the university with the title “Gene: the engine that drives plant breeding”, stating that “the effects of climate change and the performance of our existing crop varieties” has made it imperative for the development of new crop varieties that would cope with the devastating effects of the global phenomenon.

According to the Professor of Plant Breeding and Seed Production, he chose the topic “because of the disaster that may befall Nigerians and indeed Africans because of the effects of climate change, if it continues much longer.”

“We are at the brink of a new era that may have very drastic consequences for us as a people, if we fail to wake up from our slumber.”

He further said: “The successful application of Plant breeding led to the green revolution of the 1960s and early 1970s, which were recorded in Asian and Latin American countries.

“It was only Africa that failed to attain green revolution.” Nigeria must identify donors of useful genes to be able to tackle the effects of climate change”, he said adding that the successful application of classical plant breeding was responsible for the numerous achievements in the development of new and high yielding crop varieties worldwide.

The development of improved crop varieties, he said would boost government’s efforts at achieving food security and poverty reduction in Nigeria, while pointing out that research has identified “high-yielding” genotypes with useful genes for the development of low-input rice varieties.

The research, he said has helped in the development of low-input management protocol and identification of donors of useful genes for resistance and tolerance breeding, while “the identification of genotypes, which could give high yields under low-input management conditions, showed that it is possible to develop low-input rice varieties from the present high-input ones and breeding lines.”

He identified that low-input rice varieties would enhance increased rice production by sustaining high yields as well as reducing cost of production, adding that his research, which dwelt mainly on rice, wheat, sweet potato and okra, showed that “the nuclear gene controls the character of the variety.”

He called for adequate funding for research as well as the purchase of the state-of-the-art equipment by the university and other research institutions for meaningful research outcome.

In his remark, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Francis Otunta, expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the research and expressed the confidence that Nigeria would compete favourably with leading rice producing nations of the world if the findings of the research would be deployed in rice production in the country.

Prof. Otunta urged the federal and state governments to fund research in the university and also make effective use of the outcomes for rapid economic growth.

In an interview with newsmen, Okocha said that with the dangers posed by climate change, the existence of most crops as well as the expected high yields is seriously threatened, “if we fail to get good varieties,” he said.