Netherlands govt, seed companies launch programme to increase farm yields

The Dutch government together with a consortium of Dutch seed companies have launched the ‘Seeds for Change’ (S4C) program in Nigeria, to fasten the introduction of improved inputs and contribute to food security. The project, which kicks off in Kano state is projected to help farmers raise their income level through adoption of improved, quality seeds that can drastically increase their farm yields.

Following the S4C Launch, the consortium exhibited at the Dutch Vegetable Seeds Pavilion at the Agrofood Expo in the Landmark Centre, which held this week in Lagos.

“There are a lot of opportunities to improve the quality and volume of the crops grown in the Kano area,” notes Mackenzie Masaki, of the Netherlands-African Business Council (NABC), the organisation coordinating the S4C project. He explained that currently, most farmers in Kano state in Northern Nigeria use farmer saved seeds and open pollinated seeds for planting.

However, there is a business case for switching from low quality farmer saved seeds to buying better quality seeds when one knows how to grow vegetables with these seeds. The S4C program, according to its promoters will drive the use of biological crop protection and hybrid vegetable seeds to improve yields and provide training on cultivation techniques for five vegetable crops: Tomato, Watermelon, Onion, Hot and Sweet pepper and Cabbage.

Setting up demonstration farms

Convincing farmers who have been operating in the same way for generations, to start using new methods is quite challenging, and unless proof success can be seen, adoption is nearly impossible. “Seeing is believing,” said Masaki. According to him, two ‘trial-farms’ have been selected, where well-established farmers are going to run trials with the hybrid seeds to ensure selection and introduction of the right varieties suitable not only to the climate and growing conditions in the North but also for the market.

Parallel to this, he said the program will work with multiple demonstration farms that will to a large extent mimic local farmer growing conditions and be utilised as centres of excellence to train farmers on how best to manage hybrid seeds. The demonstration farms will then in turn be linked to model farmers, local farmers with good standing in the society for others to see that it is possible.

As Rutger Groot, chairman, East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer, and a member of the Supervisory Board EWS BV, previously told BusinessDay, the importance of demonstration farms cannot be overemphasised, because farmers will reason that if a neighbour can do it, then so can he/she.

“It is a way of spreading by using key farmers across the country and training them,” said Groot, “Farmers are risk averse and will not just take a risk because if they mess up their production, then they won’t make an income.”

Masaki also explained that the focus is not only on bringing in more seeds, since for certain crops a lot of quality improvement by way of training is possible even without the need of bringing in hybrid-seeds.

The S4C program is a private public partnership (PPP) between the Dutch government through RVO (the Dutch Enterprise Agency) and 6 Dutch companies: RijkZwaan, East West Seed, Bakker Brothers, Syngenta, EnzaZaden and Koppert. S4C is being managed by NABC, the Netherlands-African Business Council supported by its local partners WorldVeg, 2SCALE & AfriAgri Products Ltd.

 

CALEB OJEWALE