The National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB), in collaboration with Crop Trust, is forging ways to tackle current and future challenges to food security and climate change.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the stakeholders engagement meeting in Ibadan on Tuesday was organised by Global Crop Diversity Trust (Crop Trust) in collaboration with NACGRAB through the Seeds for Resilience (S/R) Project.
Speaking on behalf of the agency, Mr Olabisi Alamu, the Activity leader, User Engagement Programme, NACGRAB, said the project’s goal was to improve the use and management of germplasm collections through the engagement of Germplasm Users.
Alamu reported progress on the project expressing optimism that it would achieve its objectives.
“NACGRAB is a national gene bank and the project has helped us to evaluate the materials we have and we have a diversity of materials,” he said.
Alamu said the project aimed to develop resilience seeds against climate change so that farmers would have the local seeds to increase their productivity.
“We are developing the local varieties available in the gene bank and we are exposing the ascension to farmers.
“We train farmers on the development of the value chain. We have unique materials to combat climate change in terms of productivity, pest tolerant and high yield which will enhance farmers productivity,” Alamu said.
Also, Carolin Kremheller, Portfolio Manager KFW, a German Development Bank on behalf of German Development Corporation said “we are cooperating with Global Crop Diversity Trust through the Seed Resilience Project.
We are supporting five national gene banks in Africa of which NACGRAB here in Ibadan is among them.
“We are on a monitoring visit to see the project activities that have been implemented, to see the facilities and to exchange with NACGRAB staff and management to learn about their challenges and see how this project can help them overcome the challenges.
“It is heartwarming that there had been good progress regarding training staff despite the Covid-19 pandemic. We also noted that the centre is having challenges with equipment, especially laboratory equipment at NACGRAB to do their daily job,” she said.
Kremheller said the programme will run for two more years, and activities are planned, including equipping NACGRAB through rope Trust to solve the challenges of outdated infrastructure and power supply.
“The project is critical to food security in Africa. There is a need to think in the longer term and mitigate the challenge of climate change, as we are experiencing acute food prices, and this project addresses that not immediately but in the long term.
“The programme engages with user groups and farmers training farmers on the different ascension of different crops, so it is not just the science of what we are doing here but also the outreach to the users of the gene bank,” she said.
