The National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), in partnership with the World Vegetable Centre, on Monday in Ibadan trained some selected farmers in Nigeria on quality pepper seed production.
Speaking during the programme’s opening ceremony, the NIHORT Executive Director, Prof. Muhammed Attanda, said availability of quality seeds to farmers was vital in agriculture and would ensure food sufficiency in Nigeria.
Attanda, who was represented by the institute’s Director of Research, Dr Olagorite Adetula, said production of high quality pepper seeds was fundamental to ensure its availability and sufficiency.
He assured that participants at the workshop would learn and upgrade their knowledge on quality pepper seeds production.
“Pepper is very important and crucial for lives. I don’t think there is any country or city where people don’t eat pepper. It is a global crop and it is found everywhere,” Attanda said.
The executive director said the importance of quality pepper seeds ranges from high germination rate, pest and disease resistance, vigorous growth and uniformity.
“We are going to look for all in this workshop,” he said.
Attanda said the collaboration of researchers, research institutes, seed companies and farmers was essential to addressing the challenges, ensuring availability of quality pepper seeds and ensuring food security in Nigeria.
“I assure you that NIHORT is committed to excellence at every stage of pepper production.
“We are bound to assist farmers to achieve higher production, which will contribute to sustainability of food production in Nigeria,” he said.
Also speaking, the programme’s facilitator, Dr Christian Anyaoha, said one of the challenges facing farmers in Nigeria was the access to quality pepper seeds for their pepper production.
Anyaoha said over the years 90 per cent of Nigeria’s pepper seeds were being imported, and are now being challenged by the recent exchange rate of the U.S dollars.
“Recently, NIHORT and World Vegetable Centre scientists developed some new pepper varieties which we are hoping to release to farmers in the next two to three months.
“With these new varieties that are coming up, we want to enlighten and educate farmers on how to manage it, produce their own quality pepper seeds and as well as train others,” Anyaoha, who is NIHORT’s Assistant Director of Research, said.
In his remarks, Dr Derek Barchenger, a Senior Scientist and Pepper Breeder from World Vegetable Centre, said their goal was to assist Nigerian pepper farmers develop quality and disease-resistance seed.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two-day workshop began on Monday.
(NAN
