Nigeria is today the most populous country on the African continent and the population is on a steady increase while agricultural productivity is also on a steady decline. This has resulted in the prediction of a food crisis even as nearly a quarter of the population go to bed hungry.
But some researchers across the country have not given up on the possibilities of turning around the situation for good as they are thinking outside the box by bringing innovative solutions to address the challenges of low productivity, low yield, crop failure and pest-insect infestation.
One of the scientists is Professor Mohammad Faguji Ishiyaku, an experienced Professor of Plant Breeding at the Department of Plant Science, the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) Samaru, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. He is currently the Executive Director of the Institute for Agricultural Research Samaru and the Principal Investigator of the Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) cowpea, genetically modified beans against insect pests and weed.
Prof. Mohammed Ishiyaku also known Baba Cowpea was born 60 years ago in a village called Faguji in Giade Local Government Area of Bauchi State, where he attended my primary school and by November 1974, he gained admission to the Katagum Government Secondary school in Azare, where he spent his early secondary school education to 1978 and then later transferred to Government Secondary School, Azare, where he sat for the West African School Certificate under the then West African Examination Council (WAEC), the same year.
In 1979, he got admitted into the School of Basic Studies of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and studied till 1980, after the completion of the Interim Joint Matriculation Board (IJMB) Examination, he was later admitted into the Department of Biological Sciences, where he studied BSC Botany and graduated in 1983. After serving the country between 1983 and 1984, he joined the Bauchi State Civil Service Commission where he served in the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Professor Ishiyaku started his career as a Forest Research Officer at the Bauchi State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Bauchi from 1984 to 1989. But his quest to address the challenges which his father suffered lured him to move to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria where he worked as a Research Associate on Cowpea breeding for close to 8 years from 1989 to 1996.
In 1997, he left IITA and joined the services of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he is still serving at present. He has served at University in several capacities including Dean Student Affairs, Student Affairs Division, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria 2010.
His professional focus is on molecular plant breeding. He is a fellow of the Genetic Society of Nigeria and a member of several professional bodies. He has developed and released 12 Cowpea cultivars in Nigeria, with over 150 published articles to his credit.
Professor Ishiyaku who is fluent in Fulfulde, Hausa, Kanuri, and English languages, holds a BSc. degree in botany/plant biology from the Ahmadu Bello University, a Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Cytogenetics & Plant Breeding from the University of Jos, and finally a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree from the University of Reading where he studied Plant Genetics.
Rationale for the development of PBR Cowpea
For the Professor, the rationale for the development of the PBR cowpea (beans) came from constraints faced by farmers in the field while cultivating the conventional bean variety. “Over the years, no farmer has been able to produce good beans (cowpea) crops without battling insects due to the constraints such as insect pests, drought (little or no rainfall) and weeds.
“Cowpea, as much as it is a favourite legume food crop, one of the commonest grain legume in the semi-arid tropics, is very popular with humans, in the same way is very popular with insects, no farmer will tell you he can produce good cowpea crop without battling insects, so we decided to make move that will stop Nigeria from importing and make farmers get value for their money”.
How the PBR cowpea was developed
Ishiyaku said it took 10 years of research, field trials by scientists at the Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, in collaboration with various partners under the coordination of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) and biosafety confirmation before the Federal Government finally approved registration and commercial release of a new genetically modified cowpea ( beans) resistant to pod-borers (a ravaging pest, also known as maruca vitrata).
Economic importance
On yield, he said the new variety named SAMPEA20-T has a yield margin of between 15 to 25% compared to conventional varieties currently in cultivation by farmers.
“The total benefit from the yield increase from SAMPEA 20-T is estimated to be 46 Billion Naira every year if one million Hectares of our land is grown to this variety”, he said.
Motivation
The principal investigator of the PBR cowpea, said his motivation is driven by his childhood understanding of agriculture as a source of economic growth for farmers, economic gain usually is a function of how expensive it is to produce by the farmers. Ishiyaku said he is also driven by the fact that the more he works towards reducing the cost of production for farmers through genetic improvement, he is going to make Nigerian farmers richer.
Speaking further on why he chose agriculture as a course, he said the motivation came from how he saw his father practiced in agriculture with passion adding that “I chose agriculture because my father is an agriculturist, he combines this with business, from early childhood, I have very close association with the farm and other agricultural activities, so that spirit of farming grew up with me. I look with nostalgia at the very nice time we spent escorting our parents to the farm, even though we were very young that we could not do anything”.
Another Scientist leading the biotechnology revolution in Nigeria is Professor Rabiu Adamu, a Professor of Agricultural Entomology at the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State. He is the principal investigator of TELA maize, a transgenic drought-tolerant and insect-protected maize varieties to enhance food security in Sub-Saharan Africa is another researcher making waves with the introduction of biotechnology tools in the breeding of a Maize variety capable of withstanding Fall ArmyWorm, Stem Borers and Mild Drought.
Young and dynamic Prof. Rabiu was born in Zaria and raised in Zaria. He attended Zaria College, then proceeded to the School of Basic Studies for Education in Zaria to further his education, In 1986, he was admitted into the Faculty of Agriculture at ABU Zaria and graduated in 1990 and did his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Kano State.
In 1992, he was employed as a research fellow at IAR, in 2005, he obtained his PHD in agricultural Entomology, from there, he rose through ranks to become a Professor.
Professor Rabiu noted that he was inspired to study agriculture by his teacher, Mr Mathew, an Indian. This made him abandon his dreams of studying technical education and engineering for agriculture.
“Agriculture to me is a very good practical work that you learn by doing things and all aspects of life depend on agriculture because it provides food for human beings and livestock, agriculture is a practical thing. You learn from theory and go to the field, you are taught on how to improve crop yield, animal husbandry and other aspects of agriculture, that’s why I love the course.
“I would have been an engineer today but that influence of Mr Mathew really helped me to focus on becoming an agriculturist.
The Professor of Entomology said, impacting on young scientists motivates him to do more. “I want to see all Nigerian farmers do well in growing crops especially in the challenges of pest management for them to get optimum yield of their crops. Managing this key constraint will improve their income and livelihood. I want to see Nigerian farmers do well in the cultivation of maize, sorghum and legume using the best available technology so that they can better their lives”, Rabiu added.
Why the TELA Maize project
Professor Adamu said the two key constraints, drought and insect pests that hamper maize production in Nigeria were the rationale for the development of the tela maize. While noting that Tela maize is an advancement of the use of technology in the management of two key constraints, he said Nigeria cannot be left behind to use the modern tools to improve lives.
He said: “This is our third year in field work, we have gotten meaningful data that we could be able to help us to advance the next stage of the work, the stage we are now is that we are going to evaluate some improved hybrids, transgenic that is there to resist drought and fall army worm.
“We are doing some on section trial in Samaru, which we have just planted in the last ten days to evaluate some hybrids, these hybrids we are going to evaluate, we infest them with some insect pests and give to see whether they can still perform optimally as it should, thereafter, we will take them to out station for multiplication across several locations to test their efficacy against these pests, how adaptable and how high yielding in the presence of pest.
“This is the second stage that will be done during the wet season farming from May to November. This year, we are going to do some multiplications and on farm trials in all the agro ecological zones in Nigeria, most in the 10 states earmarked, each state we are going to 6 sites and farmers per site.
“At least we are going to use 180 farmers to evaluate some of the hybrids we have that are genetically modified, that basis, our work will help us to give us an idea of adaptability and yield of those hybrids compared to the local checked hybrids which are not transgenic. Those data that we gathered will help us to advance and request the Nigerian variety release committee to come and see the trial, evaluate them, attest the efficacy of those hybrids in stem borer and fall army worm.
“The recommendation by the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) and the Variety release committee, we hope to advance some of the hybrids two or three to be recommended for registration and release in Nigeria before the end of this year.Hopefully by 2023, the seeds of the GM maize crops that resist stem borer and fall army worm will be massed produced by seed companies, so by rainy season of next year, we will have some quantity seed”.