Maize can boost Nigeria’s quest for food security, says researcher

As part of efforts at alleviating the food insecurity challenge facing the country, the director, Institute of Food Security, Environmental Resources and Agricultural Research (IFSERAR) of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Akin Omotayo, is conducting a study on adaptation and promotion of extra early maize with the aim of mitigation the effects of climate change on maize production in South Western Nigeria.

According to him, the extra early maize was originally developed for the arid and semi – arid zones of Nigeria due to persistent crop failure as a result of drought. His study is to adapt this technology for the humid and sub-humid zones of southwestern Nigeria where the ecology has been altered considerably due to Climate.

The professor of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, said with the adaptation of extra early maize, a project sponsored by the West Africa Productivity Project (WAAPP), it was possible for farmers to harvest up to four cycles of green maize in a year with irrigation as the fourth cycle as against the two cycles which is hardly possible now with the regular varieties of maize.

Omotayo disclosed that the regular maize varieties attain physiological maturity a little above 100 days and with the extra early variety of maize, which was developed for the semi-arid and arid regions physiological maturity is in less than 90 days from the date of planting to the date of harvesting dry. “By green maize, I mean maize harvested green and this is what is prevalent in this part of the country. 90 percent of maize grown in this part of the country is harvested and consumed, green.

Apart from this, we have the problem of aflatoxin, which is more common here in the south than in the north particularly, when one tries to allow the maize crop to dry on the farm and that is because of the high humidity here, so one of the things we are doing is trying to overcome the problem of drought or inadequate water and at the same time, we are trying to increase the number of cycles that farmers can grow maize.

The variety of extra early maize that we are promoting in this project matures in 75 days, that is two months and a few days and by this, I mean physiological maturity but if you want to harvest as green maize, within 65 days, it is ready.

We believe that introducing this type of variety of maize will help to reduce losses particularly during the unstable raining season. In the past, if it starts raining in March, you can be assured that if you plan your maize, it will survive and you will have a very good harvest. But all that has changed.

Today, if it rains in March, you have to be careful not to go to the field and plant. Our observation in the last 10 years is that the right time to plant maize in this part of the country is usually May because that is when the rains become steady”, he added.

Razaq Ayinla