In a bid to enhance wheat self-sufficiency and strengthen food security, Olam Agri and the Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI) have introduced a groundbreaking heat-tolerant, super-early maturing durum wheat variety, tailored for local cultivation during the harmattan season.
The release of the variety according to the organisation signals another milestone achievement for Olam Agri’s ‘Seed for the Future (SFTF)’ flagship project that was launched in 2021. The initiative is focused on removing hurdles to wheat production self-sufficiency in the country.
It also prioritises developing and cultivating seed varieties that suit the country’s unique topographic and climatic conditions and training a wide range of smallholder farmers on modern agronomic practices, with a stronger focus on empowering rural women.
LCRI achieved its first-year milestone of producing 10kg of pre-multiplication wheat seed varieties in September 2022 and this season, 10 women-owned farms will plant the seed variety this December, with hundreds of farms set to benefit by 2025 and thousands more in 2026.
The novel heat-tolerant and super-early durum wheat variety called ‘Crown’, emerges from the work of Dr Filippo Bassi, a specialist wheat breeder at the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), as part of the work that received the Olam Prize for Innovation in Food Security back in 2018.
Bassi, while speaking about the wheat seed variety, said that the Crown wheat variety is tailored for the Nigerian growing conditions after working closely with local farmers to understand their needs, especially the need to grow super-early varieties that allow farmers to harvest and replant rice on time.
He pointed out that based on test results run with Crown Flour Mill Nigeria, this variety is certified as suitable for high-quality pasta production.
Also, Dr Kachalla Mala, an LCRI breeder and lead in the project, said that the availability and accessibility of quality seed varieties are important to farmers, and that the team is excited to release ‘Crown’, a heat-tolerant, high-yielding wheat variety.
“In collaboration with Olam Agri and ICARDA, this is the first step in a chain of actions to work with women’s cooperative unions and local farmers to multiply and commercialise the seed.”
Mala said that each of the female cooperatives will now receive one quintal of Crown seeds, in addition to training in agronomic management and some initial financing to produce three tons of certified seeds ready for further usage by the farmers in their villages.
“They will then engage their farming communities to further multiply it to 30 tons of seeds and commercialise it for use across Nigeria.
According to Nitin Mehta, Managing Director of Crown Flour Mill Ltd (Olam Agri’s Wheat Milling business), “We are glad to reach this critical milestone of releasing Crown, a novel heat-tolerant durum-wheat seed variety tailored to the Nigerian farming conditions.
“We consistently focus on making bold investments in projects that will enable the country to achieve its food production self-sufficiency goals and understand the importance of wheat-derivative foods such as pasta, bread, confectioneries, pastries, and biscuits in local dining.”
Anil Nair, Managing Director of Olam Agri’s operations in Nigeria, emphasised the company’s dedication to food security, stating that, “The milestone release of the novel durum wheat seed variety supports the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda and focus on food security.
He said that the initiative is not only advancing greater domestic wheat production but is also empowering women farmers to play a critical role in scaling up farming communities.
“The future is bright for the food value chain, and we look forward to 100 per cent Nigerian-grown wheat,” he said.
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