‘We have fabricated better parboiling machines for farmers’
In this interview, Plant Breeder of the National Cereals Research Institute, Badegi near Bida in Niger State, Dr Maji Alhassan Iswako, he said though the institute has developed 62 rice varieties for farmers, five most prominent varieties are now in circu
As of now, we have five rice varieties that are very good for lowland and they are already with Nigerian farmers and are doing very well. One of them is Faro 44, we have Faro 52, then we have Faro 60, 61 and 62. Those are the most prominent rice varieties today What is the mandate of your research institute?
National Cereal Research Institute is set up with the mandate to conduct research for the genetic improvement of rice, soya beans, sugarcane and Bene-seeds. That was the initial mandate of this institute. But of recent, we have added acha and castor oil to our mandate crops. We also have the mandate to do farming system research within the middle-belt zone and extension services. The idea is for the ADPs (Agricultural Development Projects) or states within the middlebelt zone or what we call the central zone to liaise with the institute, get new technologies that the ADPs will take to the farmers in the zone and feedback the institutes what the farmers feel about it.
So, because of that we set up what we call monthly review meetings with the ADP staff. We have a staff allocated to each ADP so that every month they will conduct these meetings, tell us their problem areas. Where we do not have expertise we go to other research institutes to come and lecture or find solutions to the problems. In addition to research in the crops, we also have the mandate to produce breeder and foundation seeds for these crops to enable the seed companies to multiply the certified seeds for the farmers.
So, the institute is into the production of seeds for the three crops?
No, but for all the crops I mentioned. But basically, rice, soya beans and Beneseeds are more important because they are the cereals. Sugarcane to some extent is always on request by either state government or any company that is interested.
What have you so far done on rice?
Since inception in the 1950s, this institution even when it was a substation as a rice research centre, that was when the headquarters of the institution was at Ibadan, this place was basically for rice research. Since the mandate started, this institution has researched and discovered 62 rice varieties. But that does not mean the 62 varieties are right here now. As a research institute, what we do every time is to try and improve on our earlier work by replacing it with new research work. Research is a continuous exercise. When we find any problem with the first one we released, we find an alternative for it.
We always make sure we build on what we have. We actually started with tall variety of rice because most of the production then was in deep water ecology. When later we discovered the shallow swamps were coming in, we decided to reduce the height of the plant so that we can maximize productivity.
Right now, how many rice varieties do you have ready for farmers?
As of now, we have five rice varieties that are very good for lowland and they are already with Nigerian farmers and are doing very well. One of them is Faro 44, we have Faro 52, then we have Faro 60, 61 and 62. Those are the most prominent rice varieties today. But beside that, if we have the rice paddy and you cannot process it, then it is not yet on the consumers table. So, we also research in processing. We have in the course of that fabricated machines, parboiling machines, that can do better than what is with the local farmers. These are some of the things that we have achieved in rice.