…..Tokyo Delegation Inspects Cassava Seed Project
Governor Abdullahi Sule seeks to strengthen collaboration with the Sasakawa Africa Association, a Japanese non-profit organization, to maximize agricultural potential, especially at the Jangwa rice farm.
Governor Sule received SSA President Makoto Kitanaka and his Tokyo delegation at Government House on Wednesday, where he made the announcement.
The Governor expressed confidence that partners like Sasakawa could guide his administration towards attaining the 10 tones per hectare yield targeted to be achieved on the state owned rice farm in Jangwa.
“We currently have about 1,700 hectares of rice, and we have already started harvesting our own rice. We are very happy with what we are seeing as the yield. We are getting better yield than what we expected. Maybe partners like you could guide us to get a much better yield. Our target is to have more than 10 tones per hectare as our yield.
“Currently, most of these other places are having, because of the poor maintenance of the farm, some places are going anywhere between 3 to 5 tones per hectare,” he said.
He commended Sasakawa for establishing their 200 hectares cassava seed multiplication project in the state, which has now become the source of seeds for so many other farmers across the country and not only in Nasarawa State.
“I think by you doing that, it has exposed us and gave us another advantage. Because there were so many varieties of seeds that we were not aware of. There are some seeds that have better yield than even the state seedlings that we are using here in Nasarawa State. But through this cross fertilization it gives us the opportunity to improve our seeds,” he stated.
Governor Sule noted that with Nasarawa State presently collaborating with other players like SaroAfrica in the production of cassava because his administration is focusing on producing cassava both as food and as sources of energy.
“We are trying to see how we can use cassava for ethanol production as much and also as food. We have various kinds of food that is cassava, both the starch aspect and cassava. When I learned that you are doing all that for cassava for the seedlings, I was happy,” he added.
Governor Sule was optimistic that the visit by the Sasakawa delegation, comprising of country directors from other African countries such as Mali and Ethiopia, particularly with the president and top management staff coming from Japan, would provide avenues for sharing of ideas towards improved agricultural activities.
“It is always exciting when you have country directors from other countries coming because they will use their own experience to share with us and say that this is what we can do here, this is what we can do better or maybe if we are lucky, they may have one or two things to learn from what we have,” he said.
He appreciated Sasakawa for selecting Nasarawa State for their projects.
In his remarks, President, Sasakawa Africa Association, Makoto Kitanaka, said they were in the state to inspect the projects being undertaken by the association in Nasarawa State.
Kitanaka who expressed satisfaction with the state of the project sites, said the visit afforded him the opportunity to hear directly from local farmers on the field.
Also commenting, Sasakawa Africa Association Country Director in Nigeria, Godwin Atser, said the association has already completed its two aggregation processing centres in Assakio and Obi meant to help support rice farmers.
Atser disclosed that these centres are also equipped with briquette making machines that will convert the rice husk into briquette.
He said the delegation from Tokyo are in the state to inspect the projects.
“It’s one of the projects that this delegation wants to go and see, whether we were able to deliver as we did promised or whether we did not deliver. We will also take time to visit other sites that we are working on.
“We have established about 200 hectares cassava seed multiplication and that is helping Nasarawa State to become a centre of seeds multiplication for improved varieties of cassava. We are also helping farmers to build their resilience in terms of agriculture, rice production and these are bringing a lot of dividends,” he said.
