| International Institute of Tropical
Agriculture (IITA) |
This Project is designed to enhance farmer
and community based system for production, storage and distribution
of improved early maturing varieties of millet, sorghum and cowpea.
Project activities include: multiplication of breeder and foundation
seeds of selected varieties; training farmers in seed production techniques
and catalyzing farmer to farmer seed diffusion of selected early maturing
varieties for strategic seed reserve development at household level;
and, catalyzing the formation of seed growers association to establish
strategic seed reserves at local government and state levels. This
will ensure ready availability of improved seeds to farmers and will
help to both increase their productivity as well as to provide them
with the potential flexibility needed to adjust their cropping system
in the wake of erratic rainfall in any given year. This project is
linked for seed production purposes to other donor-funded projects
by GATSBY foundation, DANINA and DFID. This has increased the number
of participating farmers to 20,000; net revenue of $600 per hectare
is currently recorded by the participating farmers. |
International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture (IITA) |
