To ensure increased yields of cereals, the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) has registered and released different varieties of rice, acha and soybean for the 2022 wet season farming. JULIANA AGBO writes
Cereal crops are the major dietary energy supplier all over the world and particularly in Nigeria. Major cereals produced in Nigeria include rice, sorghum, acha, maize, soybean and pearl millet.
Over the years, smallholder farmers in Nigeria have been cultivating cereal crops with myriads of challenges such as climatic conditions, edaphic factors, migration, use of local varieties, predominance of weeds, pests and diseases. These challenges have resulted in low productivity, which has made the country dependent on import to augment what is being produced locally.
According to a Global Agricultural Information Network report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2021, Nigerian soybean production in marketing year 2021-22 is projected to reach 1.25 million tonnes, a 43 per cent increase from the most recent 2020-21 USDA estimate.
Area harvested is projected at 1.2 million hectares, up 20 per cent from the 2020-21 estimates. For acha, production is 78,000 metric tonnes, with local demand reaching 187,000 metric tonnes, which shows there is a gap of 109,000 metric tonnes.
Also, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, in 2021, said Nigerians consume 6.7 million metric tonnes of rice annually while the country produces 5.0 million metric tonnes. The development, the committee said, has resulted in a deficit of about two million metric tonnes, which is either imported or smuggled into the country. These challenges have also caused the country to constantly witness a surge in prices of cereals.
However, there has been agitation for the registration and release of improved varieties of rice, acha, and soybean due to higher yield potentials reported in other countries to meet with a fast teeming population across the country.
To this end, National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) Badeggi, Niger State, has registered and released different varieties of crops for rice, acha and soybean, which it plans to release for seed multiplication and planting this wet season.
Speaking on the crops mandated to be produced by the institute, Executive Director of NCRI, Aliyu Umar, listed the institute’s mandate crops to include rice, soybean, beniseed, acha, castor seed and stevia. Umar said NCRI, which is one of the 15 commodity research Institutes under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, has the mandate to conduct research into genetic improvement of these crops, and all aspects of the production of the mandated crops including mechanisation and their utilisation. He said with improved varieties of rice, acha and soybean, low yield of inbred varieties will no longer be sustainable.
Hybrid rice technology can offer increased rice yields
A document obtained by The Nation from the institute showed that inbred rice varieties generally have low yield, with maximum yield potential ranging between four to 8 metric tonnes per hectare coupled with susceptibility to most of the biotic and abiotic stresses. According to the document, hybrid rice technology offers an opportunity to increase rice yields and thereby ensure a steady supply. “During the last three decades in Nigeria, rice yield growth has reached a plateau and no significant increase is being realised in productivity levels using inbreeds,” it noted.
The Executive Director of NCRI noted that the only way to increase the production is by increasing the productivity of rice through frontier technologies as the scope for expansion of area under the crop has already been exhausted. Umar said hybrid rice is a proven and successful technology for rice production, which can contribute significantly towards improving food security, raising rice productivity and farmers’ income, and providing more employment opportunities over the next three decades.
He said the Arize TEJ GOLD, which was developed by NCRI with a donor from Bayer Nigeria, has earliness to flowering compared to the former variety (Check); the yield advantage is 28.42 per cent over the former variety. The variety, he said, also resists pests and disease unlike Check, which has a maturing period of between 115 to 120days. “During the trial, the transplanting method gave a best yield of 9.7 tons per hectare.”
Furthermore, he said the second variety of rice released by the institute, which is Arize 6444 GOLD, also showed tolerance to pests and disease. “It has a yield advantage of 15.29 per cent over Check, with high productive tillers. This rice variety has wider adaptability, early maturing of between (115 to 120 days). The transplanting method gave the best yield potential of 10 tons per hectare.
“Hybrid rice has the potential to increase yields by 15 per cent to 20 per cent over those of conventionally bred varieties. For the past two decades, yield of rice has ranged between four to eight tons per hectare and with the increase in human population coupled with the dwindling arable land space for agriculture, there is need to exploit other technologies that would help leverage this problem of low yield in rice cultivation.
“It is the belief of NCRI that using local germplasm to exploit heterosis breeding (hybrids) could enable it to break the current ceiling that the already released mega commercial inbreeds has demonstrated,” he said.
Commending the research by NCRI, a 42-year old rice farmer in Badegi, Victor Jiya, said Nigeria needs an increased supply of rice due to the increasing populations as the level of rice production may not be sufficient to feed the ever-increasing population in the future. Jiya said the hybrid rice offers a wide opportunity to farmers so as to augment rice productivity in Nigeria.
Acha and its many benefits
Acha (Digitaria spp) is a cereal crop with several names including fonio. It is the most ancient indigenous cereal of West Africa, with cultivation history dating back to 5000 years. In Nigeria, acha is grown mostly in the Northern states, though recent trials indicate that acha can also be grown in the Southern parts of the country.
It is cultivated for food, feed, fodder and fuel. It has medicinal value, recommended for diabetics and delivering women as a control in the spike of sugar level. Two species of acha are being cultivated (Digitariaexilis and Digitaria Burua). In the past few years, the crop has gained in popularity inside and outside of Nigeria because of its nutritional qualities.
Over the years, Nigerian farmers have been cultivating local accessions of both species. Local accessions in the farmers’ fields have the yield of between 300-500kg and 500-700kg per hectare for D. exilis and D. iburua, respectively.
NCRI’s Executive Director, who noted that the crop is becoming popular, and the demand for improved seeds is also on higher demand, said the institute also developed, registered and released its first Acha (Fonio) variety called NCRIACH 1 and NCRIACH 2. The released NCRIACH 1, he said, has a potential yield of 818.03 kg per hectare; it is high yielding, with a yield advantage of 41.87 percent over and above the Popular Check.
According to him, it has high tillering/culm branching, good grain quality, and good market value. It also resists leaf miner pests, tolerant to leaf spot and leaf rust diseases, which can be planted in Northern, Southern and derived savannah ecologies. He added that the NCRIACH 2 has a potential yield of 1.48 t per hectare, a yield advantage of 47.45 percent over and above the Popular farmers’ variety.
“It also has good tillering ability and resistance to lodging, good grain quality, good marketing value, tolerant to leaf miner pests, tolerant to leaf spot, strip and moderately resistant to leaf rust disease, and can also be planted in Northern, Southern and derived savannah ecologies.”
However, he said the improved variety would increase the profit margin, increase its contribution to agricultural GDP and encourage farmers in the acha enterprise.
Musa Muaz, a Kebbi farmer who said he inherited acha farming from his parents, said the newly improved variety would motivate more farmers to go into the crop cultivation to produce more. Muaz, who expressed hope of bumper harvest with the improved variety, said acha is becoming more important in the country because of its rich nutritional qualities. He noted that the product is often short in supply in lieu of low grain yield per hectare obtained by cultivating local accessions.
Soybean variety is high yielding, with large seed size
The third crop released by NCRI recently is the new soybean varieties, which include the NCRISOY 3 (TGX2024-7E), which is early maturing (days to maturity: 90 – 100), with yield potential of 3.3 tons per hectare. Speaking on this variety, Umar explained that the variety is tolerant to bacterial pustule, Cercospora leaf spot and rust. He noted that the variety has large seed size, early maturity, high promiscuous nodulation, non-shattering, non-lodging.
Explaining further, he said the protein content is 39.2 per cent, while the oil content is 20.71 per cent. “This variety was registered and released by NCRI in collaboration with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) this year,” he said.
Another soybean variety, he said, is the NCRISOY 4 (TGx2020-4E), which is early maturing between 89 – 98 days, yield potential of 3.1 tons per hectare, tolerant to bacterial pustule, Cercospora leaf spot and rust. He noted that the variety is high yielding, with large seed size, high promiscuous nodulation, non-shattering, non-lodging, which contains 43.97 per cent protein, and 20.96 per cent oil. “This variety was registered and released by NCRI in collaboration with IITA in 2022.”
The third soybean variety released by NCRI is the Sc Signal, which is also early maturing ( 100 days), high yielding (potential yield: 3.3 tons per hectare). The variety is tolerant to rust disease (Phakopsora Pachyrhizi); it is non-lodging, non-shattering and high pod clearance. “The protein content is 43 per cent, while the oil content is 28 per cent. This variety was developed and released by SEEDCO Nigeria in 2022,” Umar added.
A soybean farmer in Adamawa, Suleiman Isah, said the new variety would address the shortage of soybean in the country. “With the demand for soybeans on the rise, we will use this opportunity to grow more to satisfy local demand,” he said.