Ayegba Israel Ebije
21 November 2008
Minna — Following the global shortage of food occasioned by global warming, the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) has developed up to 57 new improved varieties of rice to boost productivity of the cereal to meet the food and export needs of Nigeria.
This was made known in the welcome address delivered by Dr A A Ochigbor, the executive director of the research institute at Badaggi in Niger State on the occasion of this year's farmer's field day. He said the mandate of the institute is to advance ways where Nigerian farmers can improve on their rice production, adding that the high yield rice discovered by the reseach activity of the NCRI will go a long way in complementing the effort of the Federal Government in tackling food crisis.
"We are in no doubt that with the present determination of the Federal Government food security for Nigerians, our efforts shall focus on helping farmers double their yields and actualizing the lofty aspiration of the Federal Government. We hope that more discoveries will come knowing the importance of our mandate crops to the nation and the importance attached to our institute to deliver", he said. Dr Ochigbor revealed that farmers in Niger State were already using the technologies made available by the institute to cultivate, adding that they have brought some of the samples for display at the occasion. He said though the NCRI is expected to operate within the confines of the Middle Belt region of Nigeria, it is fast expanding its coast to other parts of the country, propagating the use of improve farm products. He said the institute is not only limiting itself to rice alone, stating that their mandate crops extends to lowland crops like soyabean, beniseed, castor, sugarcane and acha (hungry rice).
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