From 10 to 15 June, IITA and partners organized a joint seed fair in the northern Nigerian Kano and Jigawa states. The seed fair aimed to create awareness among farmers on the availability of seeds of improved crop varieties and help them to access quality seeds for enhanced productivity. Additional objectives are to provide market opportunities for the seed companies to market their seed and establish partnerships with different stakeholders along the crop value chains.
The IITA-Kano Station exhibition showcased improved crop varieties that the Institute is promoting in the region. Among the most notable were the improved seed varieties of cowpea, soybean, and maize. They also provided information materials on improved crop management and IITA’s work to support farmers with new technologies to help them realize high yields.
The implementing partners of the Accelerated Varietal Improvement and Seed Delivery of Legumes and Cereals in Africa (AVISA) Project organized the fair with the theme “Quality seed: the basis for enhancing product quality and achieving better yields for smallholder farmers”. The partners in Nigeria are IITA, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA), Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR/ABU), University of Agriculture Makurdi (UAM), Center for Dryland Agriculture (CDA-BUK), Kano Agriculture and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA), and Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI). The 3-day event attracted over 1200 participants, including researchers, seed companies, input suppliers, farmer-processors, buyers of improved seed, community leaders, and service providers.