IAR to release 10 new high-yielding maize varieties – Director

Executive Director, Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria, Kaduna State Prof. Ibrahim Umar-Abubakar, on Wednesday said that the institute would soon release 10 new high-yielding maize varieties.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the director disclosed this at a two-day “Annual Research Review and Planning Meeting, 2017’’ held at the institute at Samaru, Zaria.
Umar-Abubakar said: “Already efforts are being geared toward releasing additional 10 new maize varieties in the coming season.

“The institute has several candidate varieties of sorghum, groundnut, cowpea and jatropha being prepared for release soon.

“The candidate varieties are not only superior to existing varieties but also address most biotic and abiotic stresses,” he assured.

Umar-Abubakar recalled that three new high yielding maize varieties were released in the 2016 cropping season.

He identified the three new high-yielding varieties to include: SAMMAZ 49, SAMMAZ 50 and SAMMAZ 51.

“The two varieties, SAMMAZ 49 and SAMMAZ 50 are hybrids with orange colours, respectively, while SAMMAZ 49 is pro-vitamin ‘A’ hybrid and yields up to 7.8 tonnes per hectare.

“SAMMAZ 50 is drought and striga tolerant with yields of 9.3 tonnes per hectare, while the third variety SAMMAZ 51 is open pollinated.

“It may interest you to know that the IAR was awarded the first position among Research Institutes at the 2016 National Agricultural Show organised by the National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria,” he said.

Umar-Abubakar said the IAR, in collaboration with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), was developing protocols for the regulation of fertiliser products and pesticides.

In his speech, the Vice-Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Prof. Ibrahim Garba, expressed satisfaction that Nigeria was undergoing a gradual and rapid transformation from an oil dependent nation to a diversified agriculture-based and mining economy.

Vice-Chancellor, who was represented by Prof. Ezra Ammans-Bako, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), observed that such move was a commendable stride toward self-actualisation in the journey for a better Nigeria.

“The IAR, and indeed ABU, is at the forefront of the agricultural revolution with Mr President’s vision for sustainable food production and self-sufficiency.

“The institute, which is under ABU, remains the hub for technology generation and revamping agricultural issues in Nigeria,” he said.
In a goodwill message, the Acting Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of

Nigeria (ARCN), Prof. Ambrose Voh, described agriculture as a key driver of growth, wealth creation and poverty reduction.

He observed that agriculture was driven by technologies and technologies were in turn generated through research.

Voh maintained that agricultural research was the key to unlocking the huge productivity gaps in Nigeria’s agricultural system.

“The aim of research is to raise the productivity of existing resources by evolving improved methods of production and by the introduction of new inputs,” he added.

The IAR, Samaru, Zaria was established in 1922 as the research division of the Department of Agriculture for the defunct Northern Region of Nigeria.

The institute was formally transferred by law to the later established Ahmadu Bello University on Oct. 14, 1962.