Researchers in the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ilorin have developed a new breed of maize.
The new breakthrough has been named ILOMAZ-1, ROYAL NEWS reports.
The former Ag. Dean of the Faculty Professor G.B. Adesiji, said that the research effort that produced the innovation was done in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan,.
The varsity don added that the grain has been approved for release and cultivation by farmers in the southern Guinea Savannah and rain forest ecologies of the South-Western part of the country.
Also speaking the immediate past Dean of the Faculty, Prof. G. Olaoye, added that the Faculty of Agriculture had, in 2007, constituted a maize team comprising of soil scientists and economists in collaboration with IITA.
Prof. Olaoye said that all varieties of maize were treated for their yield potential, adaptation and quality, adding that the research team for maize is sub-divided into three zones in the country and Unilorin handles the southern Savannah and the rain forest.
According to him, the Unilorin research team tested for varieties in its allotted zone and any one adapted is the one to be used.
The yellow grained maize variety was one of the nine maize varieties that are termed “open pollinated and hybrids”, which has been approved for release and cultivation by farmers in the different agro-ecologies of Nigeria by the National Variety Release Committee (NVRC) through the National Committee of the Naming, Registration and Release of Crop Varieties, Livestock Breeds and Fisheries at a meeting recently held.
It is an open pollinated variety, giving opportunity for a poor farmer to harvest the maize and plant for the next season.
He assured farmers that efforts will be made to ensure that the grains are readily available to farmers during the 2021 growing season.
