Nigerian farmers can improve their yields and ensure food security through innovative weed management and control, the President of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Engr Aminu Goronyo has said.
He disclosed this in Abuja during a one-day workshop organized by RIFAN and Syngenta Nigeria Limited to train rice farmers on new techniques on improving yield in their fields.
The event with the theme ‘Syngenta-RIFAN Rice Weed Management Initiative Workshop,’ was organised as one of the avenues of addressing the surging food crisis threatening the country.
The workshop’s participants include RIFAN state executives and rice farmers drawn from 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja.
This event is coming barely a week after the Federal Government, through the Minister of Finance Zainab Ahmed, announced that the National Food Security Council meeting will be held soon to address the rising cost of food prices across the country.
In his opening remarks at the workshop, Engr Goronyo said the workshop is timely looking at the gloomy atmosphere hovering over the food ecosystem in the country.
Engr Goronyo said Nigeria is not immune from the global food crisis “caused by deepening insecurity, Russian –Ukraine conflict, widespread food export bans by countries, as well as mortal threats facing the smallholder farmers in Nigeria.”
He said the workshop is designed at the beginning of the wet season to equip farmers with new skills and techniques of managing weed and increasing yields in their fields.
He said the build up to the 2023 general elections is already triggering unprecedented tensions across the country, which would in turn aggravate the state of food production, food scarcity and inflation as practically most farming communities are either displaced or unable to access their farmland.
“It is our firm belief that the government would guarantee food production this year because of these above-mentioned-existential challenges. The smallholder farmers, the backbone of the country’s food security, must be supported through various subsidies, grants, protected from hawkish commercial bankers, among others. Anything aside these, would scare away the farmers and endanger the country’s 200 million population,” he said.
The workshop centered on the impact of weed management on yield increase on rice fields, herbicide application, and the best techniques of improving yield in the rice farms.
Country Representative of Syngenta Nigeria Limited, Mr Abiola Olarewanju, said the workshop is Syngenta’s innovative partnership in deepening the knowledge base of farmers in addressing weeds which have been of their greatest threats.
On his part, the Technical Lead for Syngenta in Nigeria in Ghana, Mr Emmanuel Akor said the objective of the workshop is to boost farmers’ capacity in improving the yield in their rice farms.
He said the Syngenta-RIFAN collaboration is to use the firm’s latest technology in tackling the problem of the majority of Nigeria farmers, particularly those engaged in rice farming which is the country’s staple food.
Mr Akor said, “since land is fixed and population is increasing, the surest way of safeguarding food security is devising ways of improving the yield in the rice fields. By this, the farmers would get more money and also feed the country. Syngenta has the technology to achieve this. And that is why we are here to train the farmers on it.”
One of the participants who spoke to this newspaper, Alhaji Shehu Mu’azu, said the workshop was timely and value –loaded because “we have learned how to control weeds in our rice fields. Don’t forget that for decades, weed has been one of the biggest threats to rice farmers across the country. We have been taught the innovative techniques of surmounting that threat through this workshop.”
